NEIL W. AHRENS neilahrens.com 231-881-6607
Ahrens Gallery & Studio Harbor Springs, MI
Education
Cranbrook Academy of Art Bloomfield Hills, MI
Masters of Fine Art in Painting
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
Bachelors of Fine Art in Painting
Selected Shows/Exhibitions
Richard and Jane Manoogian Museum Mackinac Island
Visions of Mackinac, 2019 Juried Exhibition
Oliver Art Center, Solo Exhibition
Frankfort, MI
August, 2016
"Bestseller" film, Featured Scene Set Artist
by Christopher Wright and Lake Street Media
Petoskey, MI August, 2013
Film Opened at Cheboygan Opera House, Spring 2015
Harbor Springs Art Fair, Exhibitor
Harbor Springs, MI
July 2015, 2014, 2013
Rau Art and Design Gallery, Solo Exhibition
Harbor Springs, MI
July/August 2012
Ella's
Exhibiting Artist, 2012-2014
Traverse City, MI
North Of The 45th Parallel
DeVos Art Museum Marquette, MI
June-July 2011
Palette Bistro, Inaugural Opening Artist
Petoskey, MI
Winter, Spring, 2010
Annual Juried Photography Exhibition
Crooked Tree Arts Center
Petoskey, Michigan
January 2008, January 2007, November 2002, November 2001
A Sense of Place
Photographs from Northern Michigan Land Conservancies
Dennos Museum Center Traverse City, Michigan
Crooked Tree Arts Center Petoskey, Michigan
March 2007
Northwest Michigan Regional Juried Exhibition
Dennos Museum Center Traverse City, Michigan
January 2006
Annual Juried Fine Arts Exhibition
Crooked Tree Arts Center
Petoskey, Michigan
August 2009, November 2004, July 2003, July 2001
See + Be
Inaugural Group Exhibition
SCENE METROSPACE GALLERY East Lansing, Michigan
May 2004
Small Works
Group Exhibition Tvedten Fine Art
Harbor Springs, Michigan
December 2003
Faculty Exhibition- Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp
Twin Lakes, Michigan
July 2000, July 1999, July 1998
1998 Graduate Degree Show
Cranbrook Academy of Art
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
April 1998
The Clarity of Seduction
Network Gallery
Pontiac, Michigan
April 1998
Para Site [an Anti-Critical Event]
Group Exhibition - Video/New-Media/Performance
7th House Pontiac,Michigan
February 1998
Immedia- Digital Hybrid Media Show
Group Exhibition University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
February 1998
On the Return
Group Exhibition Network Gallery
Pontiac, Michigan
September 1997
Spontaneous Generation
Group Exhibition Forum Gallery
Cranbrook Academy of Art
November 1996
Riff- Raff [plastic emotion]
Group Exhibition Lansing, Michigan
May 1995
BFA Degree Exhibition Solo Show
Gallery 114, Kresge Art Center
Michigan State University
April 1994
Select Collections
John and Marnie Demmer Wellness Pavilion and Dialysis Center, Petoskey, MI
McLaren Northern Michigan, Petoskey, MI
Maureen Abood, Harbor Springs, MI
Neil and Marsha Bidwell, Petoskey, MI
Ermy Bonfield, Miami, FL
Walt and Nancy Byers, Bay View, MI
Joe and Stacey Cross, Birmingham, MI
Herman Daldin, Birmingham, MI
Pat and Margaret Dailey, Indian River, MI
Everest Family, Chicago, IL
Robert Harrison, Sarasota, FL
Jay and Jodi Haven, Petoskey, MI
Karen Kearns, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Mary Lajko, Kingsley, MI
Megan Major, Detroit, MI
Patrick and Anne O’Brien, Harbor Springs, MI
Peter K. Owen, Los Angeles, CA
Jean Nishimoto, Ellsworth, MI
Ruth Petzold, Palm Beach, FL
Tony and Juli Ryner, Harbor Springs, MI
Christine and Jim Shrier, Charlevoix, MI
Ginny Speed, Harbor Springs, MI
Marty and Lisa Sutter, Harbor Springs, MI
Selected Awards/Honors/Judging
Juror, 30th Annual International Society of Experimental Artists Juried Exhibition 2021
Juror, Visions of Mackinac 2018
Juror, Portside Art Festival 2006 and 2020
Juror, Art in the Park Petoskey 2007
Juror, East Lansing Art Festival - 2004 and 2005
Guest Lecturer- East Lansing Arts and Recreation Center - 2001
Guest Lecturer - Central Michigan University - 1999
Faculty Lecturer - Interlochen Arts Camp - 1998
Interlochen, MI
Teaching Assistantship - 1997/98
Cranbrook Academy of Art
Merit Scholarship Award - 1997
Cranbrook Academy of Art
Henrickson Award in Painting - 1994
Michigan State University
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an Artist living in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The obsessions & compulsions of my art making are tied to the natural world around me in this and other locales I visit.
Lake Michigan is about 500 yards in front of our home - I see it everyday. I grew up summering on the lakes of Northern Michigan. In my early twenties I served in the Navy, piloting an ammunition ship across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean Sea. I traveled to sites I had only read about in National Geographic or studied in Art History classes. I guess you could call me a truly "Michigan Artist" - having all of my formal college training here at quality schools, and at least three branches of my family have lived continuously in Michigan before it was made a state.
The horizon line of a lake or land feature is one element that has been persistent for the last few years, and I see the thread of that feature in my past works. This obsession with line and drawing with the liquid paint in gravity has been around for over 30 years with me.
The aforementioned horizon line simply stated has been evolving and flowing to trees, fractally descriptive drips, and other focal colors. Bright yellows & reds of the day and sunsets, the shifting reds of the underneath of clouds, the green line of a shoreline...all float with the blues of the skies & water in my studio.
In 2016 I embarked on a new palette of silvers and golds along with my other past tones and colors. These works are even more abstracted from nature, yet maintain the essence and gestalt of my progressions. I had thought about this line of work for some time, and my 2016 solo exhibit gave me the right motivation to do it.
These gold and silver works have gotten more and more linear and complex. I am reworking older paintings at times with this new activity. This makes some works many years old in the process time. I have moved on to wood cradled panels as of the last year, and am satisfied with the sides of my painting as evidence of my process.
This 2021 season the overall theme of my works are that of Integration. Techniques old and new, varied surfaces and painting structures combined and collaged together in addition to my regular cast of characters of viscosity, gravity, horizons of water and land, and abstracted expression of my environment.
My influences and heroes in painting are diverse. The focal home of my inclinations would be the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950's, although I draw ideas from diverse sources in Art, History, Science, and Philosophy.