FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

NEW WORKS BY DRAGANA CRNJAK, LESLIE VAN MILLAR, AND JAMES STROUD OPENINGS AT THE PAGE BOND GALLERY AUGUST 28, 2009

These works will be on view at the Page Bond Gallery, 1625 West Main Street, with an opening reception honoring the artists, Friday, August 28, 2009 from 7 to 9 PM. The exhibition extends from Tuesday, August 25 through Saturday September 26.

Dragana Crnjak’s art is influenced by her interest in transitional moments and the energy that surrounds these periods of instability. She examines this abstract idea by creating a visual vocabulary of these moments through the exploration of shape, color, and line. The resulting forms, often resembling stones, sticks and bones, reveal a view of the tension between feelings of uncertainty and stability, as they are often experienced in unison.

As a native of Bosnia, Dragana Crnjak immigrated to the United States in 1997, “The questions of location and placement have become harder to answer as my existence seems to lie between many worlds, cultures and dialogs.” Crnjak studied art in Belgrade and Sarajevo before immigrating to the United States where she earned a BFA in Studio Art from Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, Ohio in 1992, and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, in 2004. She is a recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship, and has had work featured in a number of exhibitions throughout the US since 2002.

Leslie Van Millar is a collage artist creating contemporary encaustic paintings focusing thematically on diatoms (single cell organisms), botanicals and diagrams of domestic activities. Her application of layered wax, pigment and illustrations create a richness of texture and depth within the small framework of these constructions.

Leslie Van Millar graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in bio-art. Since 1972 she has worked in Montana, exhibiting regularly throughout the Northwest. Her artwork is in the collection of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Jundt Art Museum, the Missoula Art Museum, the Montana Museum of Art & Culture, as well as many private collections.

James Stroud’s recent paintings provide an overall feeling of festivity and celebration. The complexity of the works lies in their layering of lines, color and space. Initiating his process with the “weaving” of straight, parallel, bands of color onto an aluminum plate, the resulting rectangles give the illusion of movement and three-dimensional depth as they float and shift in front of a lucid background.

James Stroud received his MFA from Yale University, School of Art. In addition to his extensive exhibition history, Stroud’s work is included in many public and corporate collections of Yale University, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Art in D.C., Pushkin Museum in Moscow.