Penn State Harrisburg's first public art exhibit of the academic year features the works of the California-based, husband-wife team of Matthew Reynolds and Catherine Zweig. The painting and print exhibit, "Couplings," is free to the public through Sept. 30 in the Morrison Gallery of the campus library. Exhibit hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.
Lancaster native Reynolds and Zweig met in the master of fine arts program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and married in 1998. His art has always been abstract; hers is figurative and psychologically penetrating.
The exhibit "explores the theme of coupling -- formal combinations and emotional personal relationships -- in their individual and collaborative works," the artists point out. Trained as a painter, Reynolds works primarily with acrylic ink, colored pencil and collage. Zweig packs detail and texture into miniature drawings, paintings and etchings. The exhibit features studies, finished works and collaborative projects.
Zweig was trained as a painter and printmaker in San Francisco, Italy, Switzerland and Ohio, while Reynolds' concentration in painting was developed at East Carolina University and Bowling Green. Since 1995, they have exhibited their art, individually and together, in more than 40 local, regional, national and international locations including the California Modern Art Gallery, Toledo Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art and the Ford Gallery at Eastern Michigan University.
During the last four years, they have worked collaboratively on developing high-quality arts education programming in California's San Francisco Bay area. One of their larger projects is a professional development with school districts designed to train kindergarten through third-grade teachers to integrate the visual art standards into the core curriculum. The program, now in its fifth year, received the 2005 Exemplary Program Award from the California Arts Education Association.
In 2004, Reynolds and Zweig opened the drawing Works Arts Studio and Press in San Francisco's North Beach District. It specializes in classes for youth and adults in a variety of media.