The Stamelos Gallery Center is proud to share the inaugural Michigan Water Color Society Signature Exhibition, guest curated by Rocco Pisto, with the campus and greater community. Forty-two exceptional artists have qualified for their Signature status with MWCS by being juried into at least four annual exhibitions over the last ten to twelve years. Signature members that have also completed a three-year term on the board received a Great Lakes Fellow designation to honor their volunteer service. There are thirteen Great Lakes Fellows exhibiting.
These Signature Members come from all parts of the state. Their work varies from representational to abstract, and everything in between, as each artist shares their distinctive styles and techniques. The remarkable watercolors featured in this exhibition are a sound representation of MWCS membership and the extraordinary artistic talent here in Michigan.
The society is pleased to hold the first Signature Exhibition in the university’s gallery named for Electra Stamelos. She was a gifted artist, a beloved UM- Dearborn art professor, and a driving force as a MWCS board member for many years. She was selected for the annual exhibition over twenty-four times in her lifetime. Electra and her husband Bill were also important donors and treasured friends of the university for many decades. MWCS hopes to continue this tradition of annual or biennial Signature Exhibitions around the state of Michigan, promoting awareness of the unique and widely varied expressions of water media art.
The Michigan Water Color Society was founded in 1946 by an enthusiastic group of young artists who envisioned an organization to promote the awareness of watercolor in Michigan. Their aim was to further watercolor education and maintain high standards artistically - based on the premise of integrity and professionalism - and to be a forum open to all points of view. The 1940s were an exciting time in the art world, with the rise of abstract expressionism as shown in the work of Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko, among others. This infectious enthusiasm for gestural brushstrokes, mark-making, and spontaneity translates well into water media, and became a much-discussed and demonstrated set of techniques at MWCS gatherings and meetings.
To build the Michigan Water Color Society, a committee of working artists met for months, often lasting late into the evening, to form the policies and a constitution to present to a group of exhibiting painters in our state. The MWCS Founders were Mary Jane Bigler, Wayne Claxton and Helen E. May of Wayne State University; William A. Bostick, Secretary at the D.I.A.; Donald Gooch and Emil Weddige of the University of Michigan; Donald Brackett of Cass Technical High School; Mary Jane Anway; Thad Brykalski of Mason Inc.; and Ernest Scanes and Nelson Welch from the Scarab Club. Except for Ms. May, all these visionaries served on the first Board of Directors.
In addition to this Signature Exhibition, the Michigan Water Color Society has a history of over 75 years advancing water media painting and artists at annual exhibitions. Award-winning travel exhibitions serve communities around the state of Michigan each year. The Society hosts two annual in-person meetings in Spring and Fall; monthly “Art Talk” zoom sessions highlighting specific artists; and multiple opportunities for critiques and workshops throughout the year. The Society also produces an annual exhibition catalog, and a quarterly newsletter. Membership information is available on the Michigan Water Color Society website: www.mwcsart.com.
Dancing Buoys, Mike Ingle
Hostas with Honey Bee Trails, Lori Zurvalec
Opening Reception
Thursday, July 13, 2023, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Guest Curator Rocco Pisto will speak at 6:00 p.m.
Reception is free to the public. Complimentary wine and hors d'oeuvres provided.
The Stamelos Gallery Center is located on the first floor of the Mardigian Library at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. For more information, see below for contact information. Anyone requiring accommodations under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act should contact lacotton@umich.edu.
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), Serigraph print, 1974
Gift of Gilbert M. Frimet,
Collection of UM-Dearborn (1980.065)
Photographed by Tim Thayer
This powerful serigraph print from the permanent collection was created by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), one of this century's most widely acclaimed artists.
Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but moved to Harlem, New York, at 13. He is among the few painters of his generation who grew up in a Black community, received instruction primarily from Black artists, and was influenced by the experiences of Black individuals.
Lawrence's artwork portrays the lives and struggles of the Black community, capturing their experiences through several series focused on figures such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman, as well as themes related to life in Harlem and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His style is characterized by vibrant colors and abstract forms.
In the 1940s, during a time of widespread segregation, Lawrence broke racial barriers by becoming the first Black artist whose work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
He stated, "If at times my productions do not express the conventionally beautiful, there is always an effort to express the universal beauty of man's continuous struggle to lift his social position and to add dimension to his spiritual being."
Researched and written by:
Julianna Collins, Stamelos Gallery Center former intern, UM-Dearborn art history/museum studies graduate, Class of 2025
