Barbara Gillette
Barbara Gillette is a landscape painter and environmentalist who works primarily in chalk pastel. She combines her love of drawing and of rural Ohio into strong, dramatic pieces which conveys her concern about the rapid loss of our farmland due to rampant sub-urbanization. It was only much later in her career that she began to draw flowers. She has always loved line, and she is drawn to the strong yet graceful line of the Calla Lilly which prompted a series of pastels using this flower as the subject. Barbara Gillette is widely praised for the rich and luminous colors she achieves with chalk pastels.Gillette received her BFA from the University of Akron in May 1986, where she majored in drawing, and minored in painting and art history.
Solo Exhibitions:
2016 Barbara Gillette Retrospective, Harris Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
2008 Kendal at Oberlin, Oberlin, OH
2003 Harris × Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
2000 Harris × Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
1999 Akron Women’s City Club, Akron, OH
1996 Evelyne Shaffer Gallery, Akron, OH
1994 Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH
1993 Evelyne Shaffer Gallery, Akron, OH
1992 Gordon Beale Frank Gallery, Cleveland, OH
1990 Reynolds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Select Group Exhibitions (since 1990):
2013 Three Person Exhibit with James Rehmus and Bonnie Gordon, Harris∙Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
2012 “Why Art’s Alive in Akron!” Summit Art Space, Akron, OH
2011 “Looking Inward”, Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Invitational
2009 “Seasonal Perspectives” New works by James Rehmus, Barbara Gillette and Bonnie Gordon, Harris Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
2009 “Summit Art Space”, Akron, OH
2008 “River Galley”, Lakewood, OH
2007 “Artist Archives of the Western Reserve”, Cleveland, OH
2006 "Barbara Gillette & Matthew Kolodziej" Harris Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
2003 “Mindscapes” Barbara Gillette and Harriet Ballard, Artists Archives of the Western Reserve
2001 “Land: Our Heritage, Our Legacy” Harris Stanton Gallery, Akron, OH
2000 Artists Archives of the Western Reserve (AAWR), Cleveland, OH
1998 Ohio Arts Council Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH
1998 “6th Annual Women’s Invitational”, Ursuline College, Pepper Pike OH
1998 Annual May Show, Zanesville Art Center, Zanesville, OH
1997 “Ohio Landscape Artist” Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, OH
1997 Wasmer Gallery, Ursuline College, Pepperpike, Ohio Invitational
1996 All Ohio Exhibit, Conrad Gallery, Ohio State Univ., Mansfield, OH
1995 “Drawing in Ohio at the Turn of the Century,” Emily Davis Gallery, Univ. of Akron
1995 Ursuline College, Women’s Invitational, Wasmer Gallery, Pepper Pike, OH
1995 Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, OH
1994 “Architecture in Art” Beck Center, Lakewood, OH
1994 “Women on the Environment” University of Akron, Akron, OH
1993 SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, OH
1993 B.K.Smith Gallery, Lake Erie College, Painesville, OH
1993 The Bonfoey Company, Cleveland, OH
1993 Cleveland Museum of Art, May Show (also 1990)
1992 Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, OH
1991 John D. Wilson Lakeside Gallery, Lakeside, Michigan
1991 9th Street Studio, Cleveland, OH
1990 All Ohio Biennial Exhibition, Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH
Awards and Honors:
2012 Akron Area Arts Alliance Award for Outstanding Visual Artist
2000 Accepted as an archived artist in Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH
1998 National Midyear Painting Exhibit, Honorable Mention, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1998 Annual May Show, 4th Place in Monotype Division, Zanesville Art Center, Zanesville, OH
1996 All Ohio Exhibit, Conrad Gallery, Ohio State Univ., Mansfield, OH, Hon. Mention
1990 Cleveland Museum of Art May Show, Special Mention for Graphics
1990 All Ohio Biennial Exhibition, Canton Art Institute, 2 Honorable Mentions
1989 Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, Festival Award for Painting and Graphics
1988 Cain Park Festival, Cleveland, Honorable Mention
1988 Baycrafters Annual Juried Exhibit, First Place
1987 Baycrafters Annual Juried Exhibit, Best of Show
Collections:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Extensions Collection
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
Taub Container Corp., Cleveland
Society National Bank, Cleveland
Squires, Sanders and Dempsey, Cleveland
Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Akron
Crystal Clinic Wellness Center, Montrose, OH
B. F. Goodrich Corporate Headquarters, Charlotte, NC
Approaching Storm
chalk pastel on paper