The late artist Mary Beth Fogarty will be featured in Gallery 72’s August exhibition, which opens Friday, Aug. 4 and continues through Aug. 26. Titled The Art of Abstraction, the show features drawings and paintings on paper, as well as small sculptures from the My Boes collection.
Fogarty’s work draws from German Expressionism and is infused with spiritual symbolism. Many of her works focus on the subtle beauty of Nebraska’s landscapes.
Of her many accomplishments and awards, prior to her death in the spring of 2002, she considered it her greatest honor to be included among America’s most influential abstract expressionists in the 1998 11th annual Sheldon statewide exhibition The Art of Abstraction.
Her work is also part of the permanent collections at the Sheldon Museum of Art and the Museum of Nebraska Art. She was also one of the original participants in the J. Doe public art project.
As a child, Mary Beth Fogarty cherished her freedom to roam the woods of the eastern Nebraska farm where she was raised. As an artist, she found inspiration in “the beauty of the lush banks” of the Niobrara River, “striving to create an architecture for the human spirit.”
The show will also include mixed media, metal sculpture and handmade paper. They include examples of both abstract landscape and abstract portraiture.
Mary Beth Fogarty: The Art of Abstraction opens Aug. 4 from 5-9 p.m. at Gallery 72, 1806 Vinton St. A gallery talk by My Boes is featured at 7 p.m. at the opening.