Found Along the Shore | Robert Blunk
September 20 - October 29, 2023
Salina Art Center invites everyone to enjoy an opening night reception on Thursday, September 21, from 5 - 7 pm at 242 S. Santa Fe. Guest curator Jay Nelson will offer brief remarks starting at 6 pm.
Found Along the Shore features distinguished artist Robert Blunk (Denver, CO). The exhibition is on view from September 20 through October 29, 2023. The Art Center gallery hours are Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 11 am-5 pm, Friday from 11 am-7 pm, and Sunday from 11 am-3 pm. Admission is free.
Celebrating his 100th birthday this December, Robert Blunk is a distinguished artist of note in the Midwest. He influenced the landscape art across Kansas as an inaugural commissioner for the Kansas Arts Commission and a longtime educator. His work has been collected by museums (e.g., Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas; Hale Library, Manhattan, Kansas; Schingoethe Center, Aurora, IL; and the Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, and the New England Foundation for the Arts in Boston, MA) public arts projects on behalf of municipalities as well as by private collectors.
Blunk was born in 1923 in Salyards, Kansas. After serving in the Pacific with the Marine Corps in World War II, he returned home to Kansas and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Kansas City Institute of the Arts in 1950. He later earned a Masters of Fine Arts (sculpture) at Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas, and worked toward his doctorate at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. For over 40 years, he had a notable teaching career combined with an active career of creating public sculpture, designs and installations.
Found Along the Shore highlights six decades of work by Blunk. A consistent explorer of space and color, Blunk is drawn to the seascapes, landscapes, and permutations of the two, figurative and abstract.
Additional programming with the exhibition includes:
- Walk & Talk with curator Jay Nelson on Friday, September 22 at noon, at Salina Art Center, free admission
- Writing with Art: Robert Blunk with Lori Brack on Saturday, October 14 from 10:30 am-noon, at Salina Art Center, $35, Register here
- Art Byte with Darren Morawitz on Wednesday, October 18 from 12:15-12:45 pm, at Salina Art Center, free admission
This is the final exhibition of the season for Salina Art Center before phase two of Building Creatively begins. “It was a perfect way to pay our respect to the long and vibrant history of the Art Center and artists who have worked with us over the past 45 years,” said Misty Serene, Executive Director at Salina Art Center. “We will be back in May 2024, but we are leaving our community with this gift. Found Along the Shore is eccentric and whimsical, and everything I love about visiting an art museum.”