Newman University’s Steckline Gallery will present “Wichita as I See It” by printmaker Doug Billings as the second show of its 2011-2012 season. The exhibit, which begins with a Final Friday reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 30, will be on display through Oct. 21. Both the reception and admission to the gallery are free and open to the public.
An “Art for Lunch” presentation by Billings will be held Tuesday, Oct. 4 from noon to 1 p.m. in the gallery. The first 20 guests will receive a box lunch. This event is also free and reservations are not required.
Billings received a master of fine arts degree in printmaking from Wichita State University. He currently teaches printmaking at the Wichita Center for the Arts. He has participated in more than 20 national and international juried exhibitions, including the Print Club International Exhibition, Philadelphia, Pa.; the Silvermine National Print Exhibition, New Canaan, Conn.; the National Works on Paper Exhibition, Somers, N.Y.; the Old Print Shop Gallery, New York, N.Y.; the Boston Printmakers International Print Biennial, and the Hollar Society Gallery Invitational, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
“This particular exhibition is a continuation of a theme that I started five years ago using Wichita as my muse,” Billings said. “Since I have now lived in Wichita for 32 years, I decided that it was time to combine the physical reality of living here with my aesthetic imagination to create images that depict Wichita in a way that is uniquely my own. l am including in this show not just hand-pulled traditional printmaking – my primary focus – but also newer non-traditional digital print processes, acrylic paintings and hand-made books.”
Billings is a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), New York, N.Y.; the American Color Print Society, Princeton, N.J.; the Boston Printmakers, Boston, Mass.; The Print Center, Philadelphia, Pa., and The American Print Alliance, Peachtree, Ga.
Recently, he won the Otto Lambert Grever Award for Lithography at the 64th National American Color Print Society exhibition in Philadelphia. His work was also published in the 2008 Vol. 31 Journal of the Print World.
The Steckline Gallery is located inside the De Mattias Fine Arts Center on the Newman campus, 3100 McCormick. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by appointment. For more information, call 316-942-4291, ext. 2199.
