Randolph professor’s paintings to be featured in prestigious national art exhibition

Kathy Muehlemann

UPDATE:

Art professor Kathy Muehlemann has received more recognition for her art. She recently was informed by the American Academy of Arts and Letters that its Academy Art Purchase Committee chose to purchase two of her works, Swimming Dragon and The Hurley Burley #3 – Dante’s Fire, through its Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Fund.

The Academy’s Purchase Program was begun in 1946 after American Impressionist painter Childe Hassam bequeathed more than 400 of his works with the request that income from their sale be used to buy paintings and works on paper by contemporary American artists for donation to museums in the United States. The program was expanded when three other artists (Eugene Speicher, Louis Betts, and Gardner Symons) made similar bequests. According to the Academy, the goal of the program is to place the work of talented living American artists in museums across the country. The selections are made each year from the Invitational Exhibition, of which Muehlemann was chosen to participate earlier this year.

The paintings will be included in the Academy’s Ceremonial Exhibition May 17-June 11.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Randolph art professor Kathy Muehlemann has been selected to present her work in the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2017 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts.

The exhibition, which features works by Muehlemann and 34 other esteemed artists from across the nation, will be displayed from March 9 through April 9 at the historic Audubon Terrace in New York City. Exhibiting artists were chosen from a pool of nearly 165 nominees submitted by members of the Academy, which is an honor society of the country’s 250 leading architects, artists, composers, and writers.

Muehlemann’s paintings that will be featured include The Hurly Burly No. 2, inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Shiva, inspired by the Hindu god of destruction.

“The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a lot like the liberal arts because they believe that an emphasis on the arts makes for a more viable civilization,” Muehlemann said. “So for me, it’s a great honor to be associated, and it mirrors so much of what we do here at Randolph.”

Many students know Muehlemann for her studio art and Japanese woodcutting courses at Randolph.

“For me, teaching brings together two of the things that I enjoy most in life,” Muehlemann said. “I get the pleasure of being with young people and introducing them to things that might enrich their lives, but I also get to be in the studio where I do my work and have this kind of separate life where I show my work. It’s really been a good balance and a positive influence on my career.”

This is not the first time Muehlemann has been recognized by a national organization for her work. In 1988, she received the Artists’ Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Prix de Rome Fellowship in Painting. She also completed the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994. She has shown her work at the Hyde Collection Museum of Art in Glens Falls, New York; the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii; and the Pamela Auchincloss Gallery in New York City. In addition, her work has been featured in Art in America magazine, Asian Art News, and The New York Times.

For more information about the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2017 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, visit http://artsandletters.org/exhibition/2017-invitational-exhibition-of-visual-arts/. You can also find more of Muehlemann’s work at http://www.kathymuehlemann.com/.