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Join us for First Friday reception for Through the Trees - an exhibition by artist Thomas Riesing. The UT Downtown Gallery will be open from 5-8pm on Friday October 2. Ten visitors at a time will be permitted in the UT Downtown Gallery. Please bring a mask to wear. We look forward to seeing you!

Through the Trees, presents my recent paintings and drawings produced since 2007. The images are thematic and site specific generated from extensive observations and time spent exploring East Tennessee, the Delaware Valley, the Oregon Coast, and Lower Silesia in Poland among others. I respond to the elegance of the trees, and to the light and space that exists between and beyond the persistent verticality of the trees.

It is evident in this exhibition that drawing is an essential component of my studio practice. I utilize drawing not only as a means to develop ideas before and during the painting process, but also as independent works of art. Materially they include graphite, silverpoint, and ballpoint pen. Ballpoint pen is my preferred method of sketching. I respond to its fluidity and to its unique ways of developing relative densities and layers of information. The graphite drawings allow for erasing and reduction while the silverpoint drawings require a more deliberate subtle approach to image and surface development..
- Thomas Riesing

Riesing received his BFA and MFA from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He taught painting and drawing at the University of Tennessee School of Art for 37 years and most recently was the Chair of the School of Art at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana before his retirement.

This exhibition is free and open to the public. Through the Trees will be on view at the UT Downtown Gallery through October 31. The UT Downtown Gallery is open Wednesday - Friday from 11am - 6pm and Saturdays from 10am - 3pm. https://downtown.utk.edu/