Opening Reception: Saturday, January 17, 6 – 8 pm
Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to present Open Water, a four-person exhibition featuring works by Errol Barron, Gustavo Bonevardi, Permele Doyle, and Kurt Herrmann. While distinct in approach, each artist explores the expressive range of watercolor, employing the medium’s immediacy, transparency, and precision to engage place, structure, and inner reflection.
Errol Barron’s paintings emerge primarily from travel throughout the greater Mississippi River region, from the delta of northwestern Mississippi and southeastern Arkansas to the river’s mouth. Rendered with curiosity and affection through a labor-intensive, multi-layered process, his works are intimate in scale yet expansive in subject. Barron’s watercolors convey both physical geography and lived experience. He is the author of several books documenting his work in locations including Rome, Paris, New Orleans, Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Tulane University. A graduate of Tulane and Yale Universities, Barron has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1984.
Gustavo Bonevardi’s diverse practice resists easy categorization, encompassing minimal drawing, abstract geometric painting, and sculpture. Over the past twenty years, his somewhat figurative approach to watercolor has become a central part of his artistic output. Born and raised in New York City, Bonevardi earned a master’s degree in architecture from Princeton University. His work has been widely exhibited and is included in numerous public collections. He draws more fully on his architectural background in large-scale public projects like Tribute in Light, the annual memorial commemorating the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center.
Permele Doyle has painted since childhood, shaped by early immersion in museum culture and formal study at Concord Academy and Stanford University. After a hiatus, her practice was renewed in Florence through intensive study of Renaissance techniques. Doyle has continued painting and studying internationally, living and working in Italy for over twenty years. Now based in New Orleans, her work is driven by a love of color and the physical act of painting, informed by Impressionism and modern masters including Manet, Bonnard, Matisse, and John Singer Sargent.
Kurt Herrmann has worked in watercolor since first traveling to Siberia as a student in 1994 and continues to return to the medium for its spontaneity, immediacy, and fragility. His watercolors function as improvisations, responding to both surrounding landscapes and internal emotional states. Born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, where he continues to live and work, Herrmann earned a BFA from Lock Haven University. His work has been exhibited internationally, with recent presentations at Scope Miami Beach (FL); Penny Contemporary and The Other Art Fair (Australia); 12 Gallery (New Zealand); and Sidewinder Gallery (IL), where his work was featured in Time Out Chicago. He has also exhibited at James Oliver Gallery (PA) and been featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer.