The Roosevelt Hotel is proud to announce an exhibition of paintings and collage work by Suquamish painter Gerald “Gerry” Lonning to run from February 15th through May 15th, 2008.

Mr. Lonning rarely uses brushes to create his unusual abstract compositions on paper, panel and masonite. Instead, he makes impressions with acrylic paint using ink stamps and wood blocks to transfer found imagery and textures onto the surface of his chosen media. The results are truly original yet harken back to the Bahuas grids of cutting-edge American painting in the late 40’s and early 50’s.

Mr. Lonning has long used found imagery in his art, going back to his participation in a show of Xerox art in Wisconsin, where he received an undergraduate degree in Philosophy at UW, with Honors, in the mid 70’s. Now, with archival materials and a wide variety of surfaces, he matches seemingly random domestic and commercial images with blocks of color and textural fragments. The surfaces remind one of peeling layers of paint on an old building.

Music is big as a theme in Lonning’s work. Titles like “You Say Tomato” and “Blue Note” betray his love of classic American Jazz and R&B and sense of nostalgia for Americana.

"Pinks" acrylic on canvas board 9 3/4"x16" 2006

"You Say Tomato" acrylic on paper 11 3/4"x18 3/4" 2004