A Little of Everything
Jeff Fulmer and Darius Kuzmickas are artists of differing backgrounds and mediums. But they provide something for everyone in their two-man exhibit currently on view at the Reed Whipple Center.
Born and raised in the Midwest, Fulmer provides the paintings and sculptures, and Kuzmickas, who came to the United States from Lithuania, created the pinhole photography in the exhibit, "Fulmer & Kuzmickas: Paintings, Sculpture and Photography," that runs through Sept. 23.
Fulmer and Kuzmickas met after they were selected three years ago to design public art for the Centennial Hills Community Center, which opened last weekend.
The exhibit at Reed Whipple is in conjunction with the Centennial Hills project.
Fulmer uses plants as the basis of the forms in the four paintings and three sculptures in the exhibit, while Kuzmickas’ contribution features several color and one sepia-toned triptych of ocean photographs taken with pinhole cameras. They are taken from his "Ocean Pinholes" exhibit that was shown last summer at the Susan Street Fine Art Gallery in Solano Beach, Calif.
Both came to art in different ways.
Fulmer grew up in South Bend, Ind., and became interested in art after hearing his parents talk about a controversial sculpture that had been installed adjacent to a bridge on the St. Joseph River.
He began taking sculpture classes in the third grade and graduated magna cum laude with a major in visual arts and minors in biology and mathematics from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., in 1997. He later earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is an instructor at College of Southern Nevada.
Kuzmickas, meanwhile, moved from his native Lithuania to Salt Lake City in 1992. He graduated from the University of Utah’s graduate school of architecture with a master’s degree. He became interested in photography through fine art and design and discovered the pinhole camera through a magazine article. He moved to Las Vegas eight years ago.
Kuzmickas’ work is an impression of a scene taken over a few seconds of time. The shots were taken in Southern California, Washington state, Oregon and Europe.
Each location has different light and the photos capture "how light plays on the water. Some light is foggy. The images are abstract, giving an idea of what’s around you. I didn’t just want to put a picture on a wall," Kuzmickas says.
The images’ impressionism takes the cliche out of such subjects as a sunset, which are featured in the exhibit, especially one that looks like a fireball on water. "This is a different take on an overused subject," Kuzmickas says.