Realism to Abstraction: Views of Alaska

Valdez, AK September 22, 2023 – Exhibit Opening – Realism to Abstraction: Views of Alaska

The Valdez Museum & Historical archive is happy to announce our Fall exhibition, Realism to Abstraction: Views of Alaska. This exhibition features the works of Fairbanks artist Lisa Rogers-Peter who pays tribute to the beautiful place she has called home for more than 70 years. Realism to Abstraction: Views of Alaska follow Rogers-Peter’s artistry from her first forays into realism through her transition as an artist of abstract works.

Her early forays into painting focused on realism because that is what she knew. Born in Old Valdez, she settled in Fairbanks, gaining a BFA from UAF in her thirties. Ironically, it was in her university classes, where she was required to use older masters as a basis for her work, that she solidified her preference for using each of her own pieces to drive new ideas. Lisa has explained that each piece must be “more than the last piece. The work must be a bigger experiment so that you learn more about the placement of color and the image itself (and) you figure out what that is on that canvas. I must push every piece. I don’t see the point of going back and replicating. Time is so precious.” Lisa now paints almost entirely in abstraction and, further pushing her artform, has begun manipulating her old canvases into three-dimensional objects.

Twenty-four of her works will be on display at the Valdez Museum & Historical Archives from September 29, 2023, to December 2024.

September 29 at 5:30 is the opening celebration and is free to the public.

September 30 from 9-12 is a mixed-media assemblage workshop led by Lisa Rogers-Peter where artists gather, glue and incorporate assorted art supplies, paper, fabric, and found objects into wildly imaginative 2- and 3-dimensional works of art.

Realism to Abstraction: Views of Alaska is funded in part by grants from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the CVEA Community Foundation.

Contact: Faith Revell, Interim Executive Director

Tel. 907-835-2764 Email: frevell@valdezmuseum.org