Art professors featured in new Dayton Visual Arts Center exhibit

Light on Water (2001, acrylic) by Ray Must (Courtesy of the artist)

Three Wright State professor emeriti of art have collaborated on a new exhibition of prints and paintings at the Dayton Visual Arts Center.

The exhibit features works by professor emeriti Raymond Must and Ernest Koerlin and is curated by professor emeritus David Leach.

Must, a printmaker, and Koerlin, a painter, explore the people, places and things of their lives in the retrospective exhibition. Leach organized the exhibition to highlight a range of work by two of the most influential artists in the Miami Valley.

“Oil and Water: Raymond Must and Ernest Koerlin” runs from May 9 to June 21. An opening reception will be held Friday, May 9, 5–10 p.m. during downtown Dayton’s Urban Nights, and a free gallery talk is planned for Thursday, June 12, at 6:15 p.m. The Dayton Visual Arts Center is located at 118 North Jefferson Street in Dayton.

Head (2000, intaglio and drypoint) by Ray Must (Courtesy of the artist)

The exhibit was selected from 117 applications through the art center’s 2012 biennial call for exhibitions.

Koerlin and Must each taught drawing, printmaking and painting at Wright State for more than 30 years and have created art for more than 45.

While stylistically different, their work shares many common motifs, traits and themes. “Each has a rare capacity to be led by an educated yet facile curiosity,” Leach said. “In this dual exhibition, oil and water do readily mix, as revealed in the fluidity of their individual marks and gestures.”

Koerlin’s artistic training and graduate work at Yale University provided a wide scope of potential directions to pursue. Influential figures as diverse as Jack Tworkov and Bernard Chaet left their mark, leaving Koerlin with a deep respect and understanding of abstraction and the traditions of figuration and the landscape.

Must’s close ties with Sidney Chafetz at The Ohio State University encouraged a sense of art as storytelling and belief sharing. Both artists have a keen understanding of art’s long and diverse history and share in their abilities to express this through their work.

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