FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 3, 2017

For More Information:
Glenville State College
Public Relations Department
(304) 462-4115

GLENVILLE, WV - The Spears Gallery at Glenville State College Fine Arts Center will be the location of Venerations, featuring local fine artists Derek Overfield and Lauren Adams. The exhibit will be open to the public Thursday, April 6 through Friday, May 5, 2017, with an opening reception from 5:00-7:00 p.m. on April 6.

Venerations will showcase the powerful and expressive figures of Derek Overfield and the fluid landscape-inspired paintings of Lauren Adams.

Derek Overfield

Overfield is a West Virginia-raised artist who has been showing in galleries across West Virginia and the East Coast since 2004. For Overfield, figurative art has been a major part of his life, immersing himself in comic book art before he could even read. “My work brings with it a bold and heroic presence - an experience best appreciated in person - asserting the primal yet divine nature of mankind, the potent and strange force of humanity,” he says.

He received his bachelors in Fine Arts/Graphic Design from Fairmont State University where he began to work from live models under the guidance of acclaimed painter, Lynn Boggess. Since then, his work has been shown in numerous competitions and exhibitions. In 2011, Overfield received an Award of Excellence from the West Virginia Juried Exhibition. He also represented West Virginia in the first ‘Figure50’ competition and his work will be featured in a drawing instruction book, Drawn From Life by Helen Birch, which is releasing this July.

Lauren Adams

Adams is a graduate of both Fairmont State University and West Virginia University, where she holds an Interdisciplinary BA in Studio Art and French and a BFA in Visual Art. Adams also trained under the guidance of Boggess during her time at Fairmont State where she began her love of art and art history and made it a priority to seek out as much she could by visiting world-class museums in New York, London, and Paris.

Adams has been featured with West Elm, HGTV, Elements of Style, and Kelly Market, as well as collaborating with designers and brands such as Crate & Barrel. Additionally, she creates custom paintings for clients and has works in both national and international collections. She is affiliated with Julie Wynne Jones of Atlanta, Wizzie Broach of Norfolk, and the Capital Artist Collective of Washington DC. In 2009, Adams won Best of Show at the Emerging Artists of West Virginia show at the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston, West Virginia in which her art is now part of their permanent collection.

“My work feels like an adventure - a vibrant, joyous adventure through paint,” she said.

Venerations will be open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and one hour before all GSC Fine Arts events until May 5. The artists will be present at the opening reception on April 6.

For more information, contact GSC Assistant Professor of Art Christopher Cosner at Christopher.Cosner@glenville.edu or (304) 462-6349.