March 6, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Two Grand Valley State University professors, one current and one retired, have teamed up on a Grand Rapids Community College art exhibit showcasing their interpretations of nature.
“One Wilderness, Two Paths,” featuring the work of professor Bill Hosterman and Ed Wong-Ligda, who retired from GVSU in 2015, runs through the end of March in GRCC’s Paul Collins Art Gallery, located on Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall’s fourth floor at 143 Bostwick Ave. NE. The gallery, which reopens on March 13, is available between 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; admission is free.
All the pieces in the exhibit focus on nature, while highlighting the unique perspectives of the artists, both of whom are avid hikers.
Hosterman, who has been a faculty member in GVSU’s Department of Visual and Media Arts since 1999, said his prints focus on relationships – land and water, nature and humanity.
“Through my personal experiences and research into the habitat, landscape and human history of an area, I create images that explore how nature defines humans and they, in turn, define nature,” he said.
Wong-Ligda combines what he sees on his treks with his knowledge of painting.
“My landscape paintings are invented studio landscapes made by combining what I’ve seen while hiking in wilderness settings and selective 18th-, 19th-century and contemporary painting conventions to form a fictional landscape,” he said. “The titles of my paintings usually imply a specific location, but in reality, the work is almost wholly fiction.”