Gordon Lee’s “Winking Starmite”

Fine Arts Professor Gordon Lee has a solo exhibition at Clark Gallery in Boston, MA, March 5–April 6.

Lee’s paintings are about the remnants of human struggles in the urban world. He grew up in a refugee slum of the then-British colony of Hong Kong in the 1950s. He viewed the concrete buildings that surrounded him as barriers, both physical and mental, and he continues to pull inspiration from this idea today.

There will be a reception March 9, 4–6 p.m.

"Portrait of a Cloistered Mao" by Gordon Lee

A painting by Professor of Fine Arts and Graduate Studies Gordon Lee won Best in Show during the 76th National Midyear Exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.

Lee’s Portrait of a Cloistered Mao was part of the annual juried exhibition, which is open to artists in the United States and runs until Aug. 19, 2012.

Lee received his BFA from Concordia University, Canada, and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has taught drawing and printmaking at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Greater Columbus Art Council.

"RetroSpectrum-Radio" painting by Gordon Lee

Gordon Lee, professor of Fine Arts and Graduate Studies at CCAD, has a solo exhibition at Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts Gallery in Binghamton, New York, April 6–27, 2012.

This is Lee’s second solo show at the gallery. It will include 18 of his recent paintings about the remnants of human struggles in the urban world.

“Whenever I look at walls in back alleys and side streets, I find myself inspired by the marks, cracks, nails, hinges, windows, and graffiti on them,” said Lee. “They reflect our existence and also our efforts to adapt and to alter that existence in the concrete jungle.”

Lee received his BFA from Concordia University, Canada, and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has taught drawing and printmaking at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Greater Columbus Art Council.

Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts Gallery is located in downtown Binghamton on the first two floors of 186 State Street.

The exhibition is open April 6–27 with a reception on April 6, 6–9 p.m.

First place entry by Alejandro Bellizzi

Winners and finalists of the eighth annual Lowell Tolstedt Drawing Prize recently were announced after being presented for judging by visiting artist Nora Sturges.

The quality and variety of the final 23 entries were commended by Sturges, head of Towson University’s painting department.

Winners include Alejandro Bellizzi, a sophomore majoring in Fine Arts (first prize of $500 cash), Fine Arts junior Shawn McBride (second prize of $250 cash), and Amanda Thompson, a sophomore Illustration major (third prize, $100 CCAD Supply Store gift certificate).

Honorable mention awards were extended to Taylor Hawkins, a junior studying Fine Arts, and sophomore Illustration student Alex Rupert.

Other drawing prize finalists include seniors Jon Guinn, Nathan Moser, Brianne Schulze and Alexis Warnock; junior Jonathan Hodge; and sophomores Thomas Johnson, Alexander Klein, Katherine Langford, Alex Laniosz, Erik Probst, Alex Rupert, Hillary Sroufe, and Sarah Tanner.

An ad hoc committee of drawing faculty members and Gordon Lee, chair of Drawing and Printmaking in the Fine Arts division, narrowed all the submissions to 17 entries prior to final judging.

Tolstedt, Fine Arts professor emeritus, retired from CCAD after more than 35 years and serving as dean of the division of Fine Arts since 1981. He has work in a number of collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Evansville Museum of Art, and the Minnesota Museum of Art.

First prize by Dillon Sirimongkhon

Winners of the annual Lowell Tolstedt Drawing Prize competition are Dillon Sirimongkhon, first prize winner; Katherine Adkins, second prize; Taylor Leaman, third prize; and Kerry Kunze, honorable mention. The drawings of all 2010 finalists will be on display in the Canzani Center from March 29 to April 15.

Open to sophomores and juniors, this year’s competition was narrowed to 24 drawings by 22 finalists as selected by a committee of drawing department faculty and department chair Gordon Lee. Sarah McCoubrey, visiting artist and professor at Syracuse University, reviewed the finalists’ work to select the winning drawings.

Finalists include: Ken Aschliman, Jennifer Bills, Brielle Burrus, Jeremiah Caudill, Rachel Hartshorn, Eric Hines, Stefan Hoza, Taylor Leaman, Teryn Loebs, Todd Pleasants, Alex Ross, Pallavi Sen, Darian Shepherd, Michael Smith, Carlilyn Sombat, Jeffrey Tyler Stevenson, Dion Utt, and Ryan Walters.

The drawing competition was established by Thomas and Pamela Workman (CCAD ’99) in honor of Lowell Tolstedt, Fine Arts professor emeritus, to celebrate and promote the strong drawing tradition at CCAD.