1/9/13Displaying a new creative style, Pittsburgh artist Dan Bolick returns to the art gallery at Penn State New Kensington for a two-month show, which began Jan. 7. The one-man exhibit, "In Your Face," comprises 35 portraits, or faces, hence the title, and features paintings and drawings that have a story. Text is incorporated into some of the pieces. The show is an integration of his traditional expressionistic style and his neo-three-dimensional style. An expressionist working in acrylic and latex or pen, pencil and marker, Bolick developed in the past year the new style that utilizes the assemblage/collage approach.
"As an artist I believe that it is important to try new things and to go to certain creative areas that I am not totally comfortable with," said Bolick, a retired art teacher from the Pittsburgh Public School System. "Also, I get easily bored and creatively stagnant constantly working in the same format. Especially when creating portraits. That is why I am attempting this new three-dimensional approach".
Nine of the "In Your Face" pieces, including three of his family, reflect his novel style. His wife, Iphiyenia, son, Eli, and daughter, Sabrina, are portrayed using wooden assemblage. Bolick's "Self-Portrait" is painted in his customary acrylic and latex. Included in the show are 10 pieces, five paintings and five drawings, from Bolick's "Resurrected" traveling exhibit that made a stop at the campus in 2010. That exhibit featured 10 men who were freed from prison after years of sitting on death row or facing life sentences.
