'ART EXPERIENCE 1998': NATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION DRAWS 199 ENTRIES

"L.C.D." by Mark Elder, C.M.

"Just Friends" by Chrstine P. Marshall

Pamela White Trimpe's specialty is 19th century British art. But jurying "Art Experience 1998, National Juried Exhibition" meant looking at a lot of very late 20th century American art.

That was fine with her.

"If I'm too close to something I like it's more difficult for me to make an honest assessment," she says.

White Trimpe is the director of the highly regarded University of Iowa Museum of Art and a nationally recognized curator and juror. Her most recent project was curating an exhibit of Victorian fairy paintings for the Royal Academy of Art in London.

She wrote a book for that exhibit and says, "I've either been in England or been going to England for quite some time."

"Art Experience '98" opens Friday at Gallery 100, located at 119 Independence St. A reception will be held from 5-8 p.m.

White Trimpe selected 25 two- and three-dimensional works for exhibit from a record pool of 199 entries.

Arts Council of Southeast Missouri officials attribute the large number of entries to White Trimpe's reputation.

"She increased tremendously the number of people who entered the show and it gives us a better show for people to look at," says Executive Director Greg Jones.

"It also means more to have gotten in."

Aaron Horrell of Chaffee, Travis Perr of Jackson and Roberta Elliot of Cobden, Ill., are the local artists whose work qualified for the national show.

Elliot's work, a forged steel sculpture titled "Music Stand," was one of four prize winners.

In her juror's statement, White Trimpe wrote: "The forged steel of Roberta Elliot's `Music Stand' makes us wonder about the potential of that medium -- organic flow is effortlessly captured in a graceful posture that belies steel's usual inflexibility."

Other prize winners are Carol Anderson of Camdenton for the watercolor "Essie's Gourd Plants"; Laurence Bradshaw of Omaha, Neb., for the graphite pencil "Tilia Americana'; and Carl Gombert of Maryville, Tenn., for the acrylic "Anita on Yellow."

The quality of the work impressed White Trimpe as did how many different kinds of media were represented -- "sometimes within the same artist."

She purchased one of the works, a painting of a tractor titled "Cochise (H)," for her husband, who is a farmer.

White Trimpe wishes she could see that show in person. "We do the best we can from slides. It's a good way to communicate but it doesn't tell the whole story," she said.

The gallery was able to obtain the services of such an esteemed juror in part because Jones formerly worked with White Trimpe when he was at the University of Iowa. But the gallery's next show will be juried by the director of the art gallery at Brown University.

This signals the Arts Council's intent not to use local jurors if possible.

"It gives credibility to our shows. When we're advertising for national shows it means we're not just jurying for what is popular in this region," Jones said.