Aurora U. exhibit to feature Tyler Hennings

Aurora University presents the art exhibit, "not for the season," an art exhibit featuring the work of Tyler Hennings, a Monmouth College assistant professor of art, will be presented Sept. 9 to Nov. 6.

The display of oil painting on canvas is free to the public. Aurora University's Dunham Gallery is in Dunham Hall at 1400 Marseillaise Place in Aurora.

The public is invited to meet Hennings at an opening reception from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 at the gallery. A lecture by Hennings will follow the reception. Refreshments will be served. The exhibition opens AU's 2008-09 "Celebrating Arts and Ideas series," with 21 free art, film, theater, music and lecture events.

Hennings chooses banal subjects that have a sense of humor and warmth, painting them on a large scale.

Meg Bero, executive director of the Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, said, '"not for the season"' is a show that indulges us in the pure joy of painting.

"We are immersed, aided by the chosen sizes of the canvases, in color and the movement of brush strokes. Hennings invokes a strong sense of memory, both personal and shared."

Bero added that Hennings' work is about the act of looking, the process of painting, and the foundations of art. He seeks to create a dialogue between representation and abstraction through carefully observed reality.

Hennings has directed Monmouth College's gallery since 2006. He earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Western Illinois University and a master's degree in fine arts from Northern Illinois University.

For information about the series, call (630) 844-4924 or e-mail artsandideas@aurora.edu.

Dunham Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. Call (630) 844-7843 for information.