The Leggett Collection and other highlighted works from the Brenau University Permanent Collection will be exhibited starting Aug. 17 in Sellars Gallery at Simmons Visual Arts Center on the historic Gainesville campus.
The Leggett Collection, donated by Robert and Dee Leggett, is a powerful assemblage of oils, watercolors and pastel paintings rendered in a realistic style. The featured artists have won multiple awards and are widely collected.
Work by one of the artists, Burton Silverman, has been shown internationally and is featured in major private and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and other museums.
“Burt Silverman is a legend in the world of portraiture and figurative painting and is known for his incredible ability to capture human emotion,” Brenau Galleries Director Gena Robbins said. “Silverman’s style is best described as masterful realism.”
Other artists highlighted in the collection are Lucia de Leiris, Kate (Katherine) Doyle, Jacqueline Gnott, Jeffrey Martin, Bobbie McKibbon, Roger Medearis, Jane Mihalik and Dale Wilson Kennington.
“Kennington, a Georgia-born artist, is known for depictions of Southern traditions through settings and figures,” Robbins said. “Her paintings reflect interpretations of social conventions, and her realistically portrayed figures are ‘types’ that make up the communities she created in her works.”
After a hiatus from art, Kennington returned to painting through portraiture; this led her to explore the figure and human interactions in her subject matter.
“From there she moved to large-scale portrayals of real-life vignettes,” Robbins said. “Her work has been called New American Realism for its contemporary approach to the naturalistic depictions of figures and their various locations.”
Kennington’s paintings have been included in exhibitions at the National Women’s Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Butler Museum of American Art, the Columbus Museum, the Huntsville Museum of Art, and the Mississippi Museum of Art, among others. Her work has also been included in the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program.
The Leggett Collection will be open to view from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday at Sellars Gallery, starting Aug. 17 and closing Oct. 12. This event is free and open to the public.
