Mark Brown, "Winterreise 9," 2005, 10 X 8", oil on birch panel

Research Triangle Park, NC. — The National Humanities Center is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Chapel Hill artist Mark Brown, on view from November 18, 2005 to January 18, 2006, with an opening reception for the artist on December 3, 2005 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Mark Brown's work has been exhibited locally at the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Duke Museum of Art, and the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art. He has exhibited in New York at the E.S. Vandam Gallery and The Painting Center, and has an upcoming show at Gallery Siano in Philadelphia's Old Town.

The exhibition is titled 'Mark Brown: Winterreise' (Winter Journey) after the song cycle by Franz Schubert. An award-winning abstract painter known for his masterful use of color, Mark has limited his palette to black, white, and a range of grays to express the unique peace and beauty of the winter landscape. The show will consist of small gouaches on paper to oil paintings on canvas and birch panels from 10 X 8 inches to 26 X 48 inches. The series presents nature as personal and cultural touchstones with allusions to solitary trees and snow-covered fields, metaphorically charged, endowed with beauty and meaning. Always devoid of human presence, his approach to nature and landscape exudes a stillness and quietude that is provocative and unsettling. The exhibition statement has been written by Dr. Janet I. Wasserman, founder and executive director of the Schubert Society of the USA, who writes, "Mark Brown's Winterreise is an incarnation of that word-music intersection, an intersection where the artist's profound emotional response to the music and poetry is transformed into a creative act of immense daring. To trust in the truth of Schubert's Winterreise is to trust in the truth of art."

Mark Brown was studio assistant to Herb Jackson, then chair of the Art Department at Davidson College, before receiving his master of fine arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His thesis chair was Peter Plagens, a noted painter and critic, now art critic for Newsweek Magazine. His work is included in private and corporate collections across the South and Northeast. He is represented by dealers and galleries in Raleigh, N.C., New York, N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa., and Atlanta, Ga.

The National Humanities Center is a private, independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Since 1978, nearly 1,000 scholars from across the United States and around the world have researched and written 900 books during fellowships at the Center's Research Triangle Park facility. The Center also sponsors award-winning programs through which leading scholars work with high school and college teachers to improve teaching in the nation's schools and colleges, and holds conferences, seminars, and other public programs to raise and explore basic issues affecting human beings and their societies.

The Mark Brown exhibit is free and open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday from November 18, 2005 through January 18, 2006. (The Center will be closed from noon, November 23 through Friday, November 25 and from noon December 23 through December 30.) It is made possible by the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Educational and Cultural Outreach Fund.