Bob Regier’s “Journey Through Time” opens Dec. 6 at Carriage Factory Art Gallery
The strands of Bob Regier’s journey as an artist have been multiple, interwoven and inseparable. His exhibit at Carriage Factory Art Gallery beginning Saturday, December 6, will be a retrospective of his work over nearly six decades. During the opening reception starting at 7 p.m., Regier will share about the diverse activity that has been part of his visual journey. The reception is free and open to the public.
“Several etchings completed in 1960 represent the earliest work included in the exhibit,” said Regier. “The mediums of printmaking, drawing, painting, photography and graphic design illustrate my visual path between 1960 and the present.
Currently my preferred medium is the soft pastel.”
Born in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, Regier says that he can trace the beginnings of his artistic bent to carefree childhood days, each day filled with promise and possibility. He notes that three of those in his loosely-knit play group have spent lifetimes in the visual arts, even though the first art class offered in their local school wasn’t until their senior year.
Attending Bethel College in North Newton, Regier majored in social sciences with a minor in art. He later attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a master of fine arts from the University of Illinois. He taught art classes at Bethel College for 30 years, and the college’s fine arts gallery was named after him in 2014.
“Bob Regier is an acclaimed Kansas artist and an icon in our community,” said Susan Koehn, president of the gallery’s board of directors. “We are excited to showcase a retrospective of his work and to honor his contributions to the gallery and to the world of art.”
Regier says that most of his images are nourished by location — the plains environment. “It’s the landscape that has been given to me, the place that provides my bearings. I would hope that the work can be engaged on several levels — pure visual language, symbolic content, and often oblique or direct allusions to our common, shared visual world. The greatest satisfaction comes when I sense that something in my work, whether it be pure visual language or shared visual experience, moves the viewer to a moment of heightened insight and awareness.”
“JOURNEY THROUGH TIME,Bob Regier: a retrospective” will be on display at Carriage Factory Art Gallery throughJanuary 31, 2015. For more information, contact the gallery at 316-284-2749.
Carriage Factory Art Gallery is housed in the two-story carriage factory founded in 1883 by J. J. Krehbiel, co-founder of Bethel College. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Regular hours are Tuesday–Friday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.