Raue Center For The Arts

Visual Artist Reception

Featuring Steve Oleksy and Robert Kwas

Saturday, May 10, 2008   5:30 pm

Join us for a visual artist reception celebrating the works of Steve Oleksy and Robert Kwas.

Their artwork will be on display from April 17 to May 27.

About the Artists

Steve Oleksy (Oil)

Oleksy’s exploration of art is an attempt to capture not only the beauty of various forms as they exist, but to seek out both the social and emotional experiences that go hand in hand with the visual aspect of the work. Through the deconstruction and its reconstruction and interaction with other forms, both the know and imagined, the viewer is drawn into a dialog within themselves. The imagery may trigger emotions, memories, questions and perhaps all three. The final image is a result of several layers of separate and sometimes unrelated paintings, each new layer obscuring and sometimes obliterating those below it, repeated until the canvas asks for nothing more.

Robert Kwas (Watercolor)

Kwas works in transparent watercolor with the treatment ranging from representational to abstract to a combination of both. Subject matter is also diverse, he is inspired by nature and structures. The work can be a single leaf, boats in dry dock, animals or abstract patterns and shapes. He began his training with private lessons from H.H. Smithers at age 9. Later, he attended the University of Wisconsin-Racine and graduated from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he studied with William Mosby and Irving Shapiro. Kwas exhibits nationally and has received numerous awards in area art fairs and exhibits. His work appears in private and corporate collections in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and New Mexico. He is represented by the Mardi-Graz Gallery, Madrid, New Mexico and is a Corporate Artist for the Northwest Cultural Council. He teaches watercolor at the Oak Park Art League and has taught Creative Illustration at Triton College.