INDIANAPOLIS, IN.- On Jan. 26, the Galleries at the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI will open two exhibitions featuring more than 30 works of art by Montana-based printmaker and sculptor John Buck, as well as 48 prints from the American Abstract Artists' 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio and 25 monoprints created by members of the organization in 2019.

'John Buck: Prints and Sculpture from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation'

More than 30 works of art by John Buck, a nationally renowned Montana-based printmaker and sculptor, will be on display in Herron's Berkshire, Reese, and Paul Galleries through April 26 in "John Buck: Prints and Sculpture from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation."

Buck's carving mastery and unconventional printmaking techniques, such as drawing on the surface of the wood with a variety of tools, are highlighted, as is his distinct visual language, which he has developed over a decades-long practice. Visitors to the galleries will be prompted to reflect on issues such as greed, war, racism, sexism, and environmental degradation through the artist's socio-politically charged works, which layer art history, contradicting ideologies, nature, world history, current events, and popular American culture.

"John Buck loves wood: whether it is a sculpture or woodprint, no artist does it better," said Jordan D. Schnitzer, president of Harsch Investment Properties, as well as The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. "Artists are always chroniclers of our time and John follows that tradition. His images at first seem lovely and innocuous but look closely and you find the strongest political imagery possible. The environment, war, social injustice, gender inequality – these are all the themes John constantly explores.

The traveling exhibition, organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, features a comprehensive body of work, including five wood sculptures and 26 woodblock prints dating from 1980 to 2016.

"John Buck: Prints and Sculpture from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" premiered in January 2020 at Willamette University's Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem, Oregon, and traveled to Fredonia State University of New York in August 2021. Herron's presentation is the exhibition's first appearance in the Midwest and is made possible in part by Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.

'American Abstract Artists: Digital Prints, 2012-2019'

"American Abstract Artists: Digital Prints, 2012-2019," a collection of 73 archival prints by members of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) group, a forerunner to the New York School and Abstract Expressionism, will be on display in the Marsh Gallery through March 11.

AAA was founded in New York City in 1936 to combat mainstream opposition to abstract art at a time when it was heavily criticized. The organization has hosted hundreds of exhibitions and served as an active forum for discussion and exhibition, assisting greatly in the development and acceptance of abstract art in America. It is one of the few artists' groups from the Great Depression era that is still active today.

In the introduction to the 2012 AAA 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio, artist and critic Robert Storr wrote, "Rather than avant-garde rhetoric, what binds past and present members of AAA together is a deep respect for the value of visual experience unencumbered by programs and pretensions, for what one might call the poetry of the plain although in the hands of some AAA adherents, essential plainness achieves extreme states of intricacy or encompasses such exquisite refinement or subtlety that the average viewer might briefly be tempted to mistake it for its opposite."

This exhibition is organized by the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and is supported by the Creative Motif Fund in New York.

Participating artists are Alice Adams, Liz Ainslie, Steven Alexander, Siri Berg, Emily Berger, Jeffrey Bishop, Susan Bonfils, Power Boothe, Henry Brown, Kenneth Bushnell, Jacob Cartwright, Rob de Oude, Gabriele Evertz, Laurie Fendrich, Joanne Freeman, Gart Golkin, John Goodyear, Gail Gregg, James Gross, Lynne Harlow, Mara Held, Pinkney Herbert, Daniel G. Hill, Gilbert Hsiao, Rhia Hurt, Phillis Ideal, Julian Jackson, James Juszczyck, Cecily Kahn, Steve Karlik, Marthe Keller, Irene Lawrence, Jane Logemann, Vincent Longo, David Mackenzie, Stephen Maine, Katinka Mann, Nancy Manter, Joanne Mattera, Creighton Michael, Manfred Mohr, Hiroshi Murata, Judith Murray, Lisa E. Nanni, Jim Osman, John Phillips, Don Porcaro, Corey Postiglione, Lucio Pozzi, Raquel Rabinovich, Leo Rabkin, Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, David Row, Anne Russinof, Lorenza Sannai, Karen Schifano, Mary Schiliro, Claire Seidl, Edward Shalala, Melissa Staiger, Robert Storr, Robert Swain, Clover Vail, Vera Vasek, Don Voisine, Stephen Westfall, Jeanne Wilkinson, Mark Williams, Thornton Willis, Kim Uchiyama, and Nola Zirin.