Blue Figure NU by artist Shawn Williams

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -
The public is invited to an artist’s reception in conjunction with the season’s first art exhibit in the Sloan Fine Arts Gallery on the Lock Haven University campus. The works of artist Shawn Williams will be on display from September 15 to October 8. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday –Friday.
The opening reception will be at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 15. This free event is sponsored by the Lock Haven University Art Department in cooperation with the LHU Student Cooperative Council.
Williams’’ work is inspired by his family’s love of working with their hands. “My work,” he says, “is a kind of nostalgic homage to the American middle-class domestic work ethic, where personal pleasure and self-worth can be realized by working with one’s hands to build, repair, or to simply keep busy by ‘tinkering’ away on home-improvement projects.” His screenprints emphasize “the romanticized imagery in advertisements and catalogues from the 1950’s,” in which home repair work appears easy. “These ideal images of people effortlessly working on their home improvement projects offer obvious humor to anyone who has tacked projects like these on their own,” says Williams. He adds, “Ultimately, these prints are concerned with the ‘idea’ of work itself, that is, the contrast between our ideal goals and the struggle to achieve those goals.”

Williams’ work has been displayed extensively throughout the region in solo/one-person exhibitions and group exhibitions. He has been invited to many colleges to deliver artist’s lectures and to serve as visiting artist. He has also received numerous scholarships, honors, and awards. His works are included in the collections of the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, the Center for Emerging Visual Artist in Philadelphia, the Southern Graphics Council, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Amity Art Foundation, the University of Miami, and Columbia College in Chicago.

Williams earned his BFA (printmaking concentration) Summa Cum Laude from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from the University of Delaware. He serves as adjunct instructor of printmaking, drawing and design at Harrisburg Area Community College.