HACC-Gettysburg Campus features exhibits during Hispanic Heritage Month

Sept. 14, 2009

Gettysburg -- In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month 2009, the Gettysburg Campus of HACC features several exhibits at the recently renovated campus on Old Harrisburg Road. The free, public exhibits will be on display through Oct. 15.

Exhibits in a new gallery hallway include colorful paintings by Colombian artist Liliana Arias and by student artists and primitivista painters from Leon, Nicaragua.

A display case in the library area of the new Learning Commons holds small art objects collected from several Latino countries by HACC staff and faculty. Also on exhibit in the Learning Commons are 15 stained glass panels created by an artist who goes by the single name Holland.

The artists will describe their work and answer questions about their art at a reception during the annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration on the campus from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7.

The celebration also will feature mariachi music, traditional Mexican dances, and foods representing various Latino cultures. The Hispanic Heritage event and the exhibits are free and open to the community.

Liliana Arias paintings:

Vibrant paintings by Adams County artist Liliana Arias include captivating images of women and children and expressionistic still lifes of plants and fruits. Arias, a native of Colombia, South America, says that through her work she expresses a passion for life and “seek(s) answers to who I am and the culture that I came from, reconnecting to a part that is often buried underneath the hectic routines of life.”

In her artist statement, Arias says “I love expressionism because of the spontaneity it affords and the freedom to convey how I feel about the subject. I seek to depict the warm and exotic together to embody differences of freedom and expression. Art is constantly breaking the tremendous barriers of our cultures. It opens our hearts to quiet places of beauty and wonder.”

Arias has studied painting techniques under two Colombian masters: expressionism with Alejandro Obregon and abstract expressionism with Marzipan Echavarria. Her home in York Springs also serves as her studio, Gallery Lily Rosa.

Project Gettysburg/Leon paintings:

Also in HACC’s gallery hallway, a selection of colorful and detailed paintings of landscapes and village scenes represents the work of student artists at Taller Artistico Xuchialt, the art school sponsored by Project Gettysburg/Leon in Leon, Nicaragua. This exhibit also includes works by older primitivista painters from Leon, which are on loan from private collections in the area.

Project Gettysburg/Leon links and Leon, Nicaragua as sister cities. The major focus of the project is to help Leon citizens develop projects that eventually they can sustain on their own. The mission of the Taller school is “to preserve the traditional culture of Nicaragua by teaching art and dance to those who might not otherwise receive such instruction and to awaken the artist in those in whom the artistic spirits might otherwise lie dormant.” Project Gettysburg/Leon arranges regularly for artists-in-residence to teach at the school.

Stained glass by Holland:

Holland (who goes by a single name) is a self-taught stained glass artist who works out of his studio in northeastern Pennsylvania. Originally from Reading, he has lived in California and graduated from high school in Naples, Italy, where he gained his appreciation for the architectural lines and spaces that he interprets in his work.

Prior to beginning his stained glass work in 2005, Holland practiced creative SLR photography for 35 years. He moved into website design, CGI still portraiture, fantasy visions and digital photography at the beginning of the computer graphics age. He also has practiced poetry and painted in oil and watercolors. He is currently splitting his talents between stained glass and an old world photography process called gum-bichromate.

Most of his geometric stained glass designs are first created on paper, then executed using a palette of tinted and textured glass. Others are spontaneous works which transition from a basic idea to a finished composition.

Holland’s stained glass work has been featured in several long-term exhibits at Pennsylvania galleries, and 10 of his fine-glass artworks are currently on display in the Radius, HACC’s Gallery and Museum Shop at the State Museum of Harrisburg. He also has created commissioned work for patrons in Martha’s Vineyard, East Hampton, Philadelphia, the Poconos, Harrisburg and Santa Fe, N.M.

In addition to the artists’ reception Oct. 7, the exhibits will be on display from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday through Oct. 15.

HACC-Gettysburg Campus is located at 731 Old Harrisburg Road, near Weis Markets and Adams County National Bank. For more information, call 337-3855.

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