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September Issue 2003
Three New Exhibitions at Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC
New exhibitions at Waterworks Visual Arts Center (WVAC) in Salisbury, NC, featuring the intrinsically profound, yet often humorous, photographic quadtones of Richard Miller entitled Myths of Masculinity and Boys Toys, the powerfully rhythmic works on paper by Pat Boyer entitled Primal Rhythm, and two- and three-dimensional artwork representing a lifetime devoted to artistry by Robert Toth entitled An Artist's Life. The Miller and Boyer exhibits will be on view through Nov. 8, the Toth exhibit through Nov. 1, 2003.
Photographer Richard Miller of Washington State became intrigued by photography at an early age. He contends, "Photography was a male rite of passage in my family. Both my grandfather and my father were serious amateur photographers." Unfortunately, due to a hereditary atrophy of the optic nerve, which has left him legally blind for the majority of his life, Miller set aside his dream of a career in photography and pursued academics. He earned his BA in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1979. After spending ten years in the graphic design business, Miller decided to return to his true passion of photography, at which point he began his formal study of advertising photography at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Since graduating from RIT in 1990, he has exhibited his work in numerous group and one-person shows across the nation, including in New York, Washington, and California. He has been included in two magazines: Photo Metro and Popular Photography and has received awards for his work in various exhibitions. His exhibitions entitled Myths of Masculinity and Boys Toys, which will be on display at WVAC, examine the meaning behind being male and the boundary between male stereotypes and male archetypes. According to Miller, "This subject matter is meant to be thought-provoking... Through concept and technique [the combination of digital technology and black and white photography] these photographs explore the boundaries of what is possible."
Pennsylvania artist Pat Boyer expresses an aura in her artwork which is simultaneously disjointed and connected and which reveals both a communal and solitary existence. Primal Rhythm, the collection of works on paper which will be exhibited at WVAC, radiates with these characteristics. Boyer received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, and her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA. She has been exhibiting her work professionally since 1992. Her artwork has been displayed throughout the United States and internationally and can be found in both private and corporate collections in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, California, Europe, and Asia. Boyer participated in a residency at the Art Workshop International, Assisi, Italy, during the summers of 1990-2000. She has been included in numerous publications, both nationally and internationally, and has been the recipient of several art accolades. The artist says of Primal Rhythm, "It's about being deeply human and functioning in the world... There is a tension between being in touch with [our] inner beat and our daily lives..."
Local artist Robert Toth, possibly best known for his sculpture busts of some of the most famous and inspirational great minds of the past, has been a working artist for 40 years. His creative talents extend across a wide variety of media and encompass many different themes. His upcoming exhibition at WVAC, An Artist's Life, reveals the numerous gifts he possesses. Toth graduated from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, Newark, NJ, in 1966, where he majored in Fine Art. He continued his study of art through 1975 via formal educational institutions and two private studies. In the mid-1980s, Toth hosted two art-instructional programs featured on local cable channels in New Jersey. The artist has received numerous awards and has been featured in several publications, including American Artist Magazine, Classic Cycle Review Magazine, and Easy Rider Magazine. He has been commissioned by a plethora of reputable corporations, foundations, and individuals for his sculptures, the most recent of which were for a Beethoven bust by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City and for the busts of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson by MGM Studios in Hollywood, CA, to be used as props in the upcoming comedy Scary Movie 3.
Richard Miller and Pat Boyer are represented by Katharine T. Carter and Associates of St. Leo, Florida, and New York City.
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Waterworks Visual Arts Center is funded by individual memberships, corporations and businesses, foundations, the City of Salisbury, Rowan County, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the center at 704/636-1895, or on the web at (www.waterworks.com).
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