Show Preview | Marine Artists Exhibition

Williamsburg, VA
Muscarelle Museum of Art, September 9-November 11

Russ Kramer, MALABAR X Off Bermuda, 1930, oil, 18 x 24.

This story was featured in the September 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art September 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

The best in contemporary marine art begins a 17-month excursion across five states this month in a traveling exhibition sponsored by the American Society of Marine Artists. Every three years, museums around the country host this juried fine-art show of maritime-themed paintings, drawings, sculpture, and scrimshaw. The exhibition—the 17th in ASMA’s history—opens September 9 at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in historic Williamsburg, VA, where works remain on view through November 11. From there, the show makes stops in Maryland, Georgia, and Minnesota before concluding at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT, in January 2018.

“Our host venues always report high interest and turnout for an ASMA national exhibition—testament, I think, to everyone’s basic human attraction to the water,” says Russ Kramer, an ASMA Fellow and former president. “Our shows display an incredible diversity of imagery—open ocean, inland rivers and bays, historic leisure vessels and modern working vessels, marine life. There’s something for everyone.”

Kramer, a nationally recognized marine artist, worked in journalism and advertising before he started painting at age 40. Even at an early age, though, Kramer says he wanted to capture his feelings about the sea on canvas and share them with others. “I’m fascinated by the human experience of sailing and the joy and anxiety it can bring, often at the same time,” he says. “Many of my works focus on that—the men and women behind the wheel and on deck, and the adventures they are having. There are so many great stories of early yachting history to be told. I love to travel back in time, re-create these scenes, and bring the viewer along for the ride.”

The ASMA Fellows received more than 400 entries from members in this year’s competition, from which they selected 95 to appear alongside works of their own, including Kramer’s oil painting MALABAR X OFF BERMUDA, 1930. “Malabar was a famous schooner that won the Bermuda race that year,” says the Mystic, CT, artist. “I show her late in the afternoon passing St. David’s Lighthouse. For me, the joy of it is in capturing unusual light and atmospheric effects in my paintings and creating a mood for the viewer.” —Kim Agricola

contact information
757.221.2700
www.muscarelle.org

314.241.2339
www.americansocietyofmarineartists.com