Fri, Sep 8, 2023, 6 –8 pm Main Gallery Gallery Exhibition Event Image Recipient of the 2022 McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist Award, composer, musician, educator, visual artist, craftsman, inventor, activist, and human, Douglas R. Ewart (b. 1946) presents Excursion: Visual and Sonic Galaxy. A retrospective of Ewart's drawings, paintings, collages, sonic sculptures, masks, sculptures, musical instruments, and more, showcases four decades of his multidisciplinary and polymathic practice. Ewart describes his art as “a confluence of indivisible practices. Each discipline aids and acts as a catalyst for the others, with music as the overarching and galvanizing agent.” Utilizing conventional and experimental approaches to actualize his work, his ongoing practice serves as a communion of self, and the development of expression across time, history, and the community. “As a community-supported artist, I feel that it is incumbent upon me to aspire to be a beacon and drum major for spiritual, cultural, social, and political change and development. I conceptualize my responsibilities in society from this viewpoint as I strive to balance artistic integrity and social responsibility. For me, this balance is achieved through the stimuli of novel sound, visual arts techniques, language, materials, techniques, technologies, movement, and fresh costumes that nevertheless anchor themselves in many traditions.” His work blurs the boundaries of artistic disciplines creating what Ewart describes as “a conscious recognition of the correlation between our treatment of art practices, and the way we engage in and embrace planetary views that foster global progress and development.” With work nurtured by history, humanity, legacy, and the community, Excursion offers an exploration of unfamiliar territory, the stories we share, and the experiences we encounter. “I want to magnify the links and the overlaps of play and work, laughter and seriousness, esoteric and generic, ethereal and earthy, mythology and pragmatism, gravity and levitation, meditation and concentration, the fine lines between child and adult, imagination and realism.” Please join us on Friday, September 8 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. All are welcome! Learn More Exhibition page for Excursion: Visual and Sonic Galaxy Douglas R. Ewart