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Painting Exhibition Opens Staniar Gallery’s New Season

To begin its 2013-14 season, Washington and Lee’s Staniar Gallery will present paintings by California artist Gina Werfel. The exhibition will be on view from Sept. 4 through Sept. 27.

An artist’s talk will be on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 5:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall. The lecture will be followed by a reception for the artist in Lykes Atrium, which is adjacent to Staniar Gallery.

Gina Werfel’s colorful, dynamic compositions are informed by her history as a plein air painter but she also references a variety of other inspirations in her paintings, such as her son’s drawings or objects in her studio. “Mixing up sources is the most exciting part of painting for me, a universe that incorporates the seen world as well as fragmentary gestures from memory,” Werfel said.

Poised between chaos and structure, abstraction and representation, Werfel’s canvases combine a focused mastery of her craft with an exuberant spontaneity. Werfel, who is a professor of art at the University of California Davis, has recently been featured in solo shows at Google Headquarters (Mountain View, Calif.) and Prince Street Gallery (New York City).

Staniar Gallery is located on the second floor of Wilson Hall, in Washington and Lee University’s Lenfest Center for the Arts. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please call 540-458-8861.