Press Releases

September 10, 1999

Southampton College Alumni Highlight 6th Annual Munford Invitational Art Exhibit
Lorna Libert of Bellingham, Washington, Darlene Charneco of Southampton are featured

Contact:
JOSEPH DIONISIO (jdionisio@southampton.liu.edu)
631-287-8313

Southampton, NY-- Lorna Libert of Bellingham, MA, and Darlene Charneco of Southampton, who earned Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees at Southampton College of Long Island University, will be featured in the 6th Annual Robert Munford Alumni Invitational Art Exhibit from Sept. 21 to October 15 in the College's Avram Gallery.

An artist reception will be held Wednesday, Sept. 22 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, noon to 5 p.m. For information call Gallery Director Beth Giles at 516-287-8234.

Lorna Libert, who was raised in Centerport, Long Island, will present paintings and drawings of abandoned structures such as houses and boats. Working in a classic academic manner reminiscent of the New York "ashcan" style, she attempts to immortalize the significance of these haunting, decaying structures.

"The fading wood, peeling paint and broken windows provide each place with a personality and history," said Libert, who earned her B.F.A with a concentration in painting in 1989. She also is a former instructor at the College's Master Photography Workshop.

Describing Libert's paintings, the newspaper Every Other Weekly wrote: "they suggest mysteries of the past and cause you to stop and ponder the future... the work is uniformly interesting and oddly haunting. The colors are vibrant and sometimes extreme, but the paintings exude a stark, slightly tweaked realism."

Libert's seven-foot depiction of the since-demolished Benesta Lodge in Greenport, NY, was praised by Kimberly Goff, director of the Elaine Benson Gallery in Bridgehampton, as "large, powerful, stimulating (work), with wonderful tumultuous skies." Libert was featured in the Benson Gallery's "Emerging Artists" show last May. Libert's work has been exhibited at the Arco Museum in Bellingham, WA, the Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle, the Wittman Gallery in Vancouver and the Oceanside (CA) Museum of Art. She earned an MFA in 1997 from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA.

Darlene Charneco, who was raised in Ronkonkoma, will present mixed media including her Book of Hope, an ongoing series of artwork inspired by the common thread of ritual found in nearly all cultures and religions. She said, "each wall- piece is a 2' x 2' tactile page of text containing my hopes wishes and aspirations" literally hammered out letter by letter in a personal code of nails." The pieces are reflective of European monastic manuscripts or Tibetan sand mandalas.

Rose Slivka's review of an earlier exhibit said Charneco "is able to identify the elements that make for an assemblage that is fragmentary and poetic yet solid and substantial-our brilliant young artist goes from success to success" It is remarkable that someone so young knows so much about the art of the flaw enough to design it." Charneco's work has been exhibited in the Hecksher Museum in Huntington, the East End Arts Council and the Smithtown Arts Council where she was awarded First Prize in their National Juried Competition. She earned her B.F.A from Southampton in 1993.

The Alumni Invitational Art Exhibit, held annually since 1994, is named for the late Robert Munford, a beloved Southampton College Art Professor (1971-91) who painted in Europe and New York City before joining the College. In Ibiza during the 1950s he joined Grupo Ibiza, a group of American and European artists who greatly influenced that era's Spanish art scene.