Contact info: Drew Knapp
973 - 783 - 3226 ( U.S.A. )
drewknapp@bigfoot.com

Emerging
an exhibition of recent works by Drew Knapp
at Le Dos de la Baleine, Paris, France

May 13 - June 17, 2000
Opening reception: May 13, 7 - 8 pm

Le Dos de la Baleine
40, rue des Blancs - Manteaux
75004 Paris

tel. 01 42 72 38 98
fax 01 42 71 40 59


Drew Knapp will exhibit his newest body of work at Le Dos de la Baleine, Paris, France from May 13 to June 17, 2000. Mr. Knapp is a visual artist working in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, woodworking, and photography. This exhibition features a number of mixed media pieces, finished and in progress, allowing the viewer a rare glimpse into the creative process. The show displays a highly personal synthesis of mixing materials and methods, encompassing both technical experimentation and spiritual growth. Knapp's work is improvisational, non-objective and organic. It is reflective of nature, however, evoking landscapes, cloud formations, trees, stained glass, sidewalk crackings, ancient stone walls, and biological transformations. Many of the forms and processes are inspired by discoveries the artist made while restoring historic edifices. The oil paintings: thick, crusty and liquid, are executed on unstreched canvas and mounted on paper, rectangular but slightly irregular. Airbrush, silkscreen, collage, wood, metal and plaster inlay are freely intermingled, forming a quirky tapestry of passion, sensuality and monastic asceticism. Knapp, originally of Livingston, N.J., began his training with Edwin Havas at Seton Hall Preparatory School, and then attended The Cooper Union where he studied principally with Stefano Cusumano. He graduated in 1975 and joined City Without Walls in Newark, N.J., helping to establish an art gallery, traveling exhibition, workshops and an urban street theatre company. He subsequently taught art history at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. In 1978 Mr. Knapp was awarded a Rotary Fellowship to study at Villa Schifanoia in Florence, Italy, and received his M.A. in painting, drawing and printmaking from that institution in 1979.

Knapp lived in Florence for six years, during which time he taught at Studio Art Centers International, and undertook his first restoration of a historic property, located in the mountains of Loro Ciuffenna, Provincia di Arezzo. After returning to the U.S. in 1984 he taught successively at St. Benedict's Preparatory School, the Newark Board of Education, and The Montclair Kimberley Academy. He currently teaches at Gibbs College, and continues his award-winning work in historic restoration. Mr. Knapp lives and works in Montclair, N.J. and Woodstock, N.Y. Drew Knapp's work is included in numerous private and public collections in the USA and abroad, including: Coopers & Lybrand, Newark Benedictine Abbey, the Forbes Collection and Mexican photographer, Manuel Alvarez Bravo.

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