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About the Artist

Spence Guerin lives in his hometown, Melbourne, Florida. He was a full-time resident of Alaska 1974-89 and maintains a studio fifty miles from Anchorage. A stepvan mobile studio enables him to work on location away from home for extended periods of time, as he has done from coast-to-coast.

Spence Guerin works in painting, drawing and printmaking media, mostly landscape, some still life, some figurative, including portraits -- working from direct observation on location. He sometimes engages in irreverent commentary (see funky) for this disturbing yet hopeful era in American and world history that enfolds us all. AWARDS include: Academy Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters (see Award text below); Artist Fellowship Grant, Alaska State Arts Council; and Artist Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts.



Exhibitions, Awards & Collections

Academy Award in Art
"Spence Guerin is a contemporary artist who brings the American nineteenth-century tradition of naturalist painting convincingly into the 21st century. Mr. Guerin paints from direct visual experience with camera-like precision. He chooses to paint scenes that are often complex, such as a Florida swamp with its jumble of wild and bewildering vegetation, of which he makes structured sense. He captures the views he chooses to paint with the light and atmosphere so tangiblibly depicted that the viewer of the painting experiences a hallucinatory sense of being unexpectedly in the space of the scene. Though he is brilliant at creating the illusion of a real place, it is his strong sense of pictorial structure that makes him modern."
American Academy of Arts and Letters
New York City
May 19, 2004

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Academy Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City

National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowship Grant for Painting

Alaska State Arts Council Artist Fellowship Grant for Painting

Purchase Award, Childe Hassam Fund Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letter, New York City (now American Academy of Arts and Letters)

Purchase Award, Florida Biennial II, Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, now Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Largo FL

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Alaska Airlines

Alaska State Museum, Juneau

Anchorage Museum of Art and History

ARCO Alaska

Arizona State University Museum

Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida

Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Largo, Florida

Phoenix Art Museum

Republic Security Bank, West Palm Beach, Florida

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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Alaska State Museum

Anchorage Museum of Art and History

Brevard Museum of Art and Science

Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport

Foothills Art Museum, Golden, Colorado

Lander University, Greenwood, South Carolina

Laurel Seth Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

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2013

Art from the Heart of Florida, invitational exhibition of eleven Central Florida artists, Sept. 20 thru Jan. 11, 2014 at Crealde School of Art, Winter Park FL. Curated by Executive Director Peter Schreyer and Henry Sinn, Director of Painting and Drawing. Artists include: Marc Barrett, Suzanne Camp Crosby, Charles Eady, Michael Galletta, Spence Guerin, Charles Hazelaar, David Hunter, Spencer Pettit, Sean Sexton, Anna Tomczak, and Rgoberto Torres.

Completed first small 'View of Melbourne' painting along the Indian River Lagoon, on same day dead dolphin #49 was pulled out of the polluted and dying lagoon

Initiated work on series of small paintings at Kissimmee Prairie

Continued portrait drawing series in Florida

Printed some etchings at Michael Kemp's in Micanopy FL, rekindling interest in intaglio printmaking

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2011-2012

First visits to Kissimmee Prairie and other natural Florida areas

Continued portrait drawing series in Florida

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2010

Working on painting commission in Alaska

Alaska-Canada Hwy drive to Alaska, added another Kluane Lake painting to the Al-Can Series

Continued portrait drawing series in Florida

Publications: “Studio Visit” juried artist catalog competition, Open Studios Press, Spring 2010.

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2009

In a New Light: Selections from the Gulf Coast Museum of Art Collection", on view May 22nd - October 6, 2009 at the Florida International Museum

Liquid Muse (Florida's American Heritage River: The Art of the St. Johns Region) an exhibition of 45 Florida artists, includes Spence Guerin's Tootoosahatchee, travels to:
- Feb. 15-Mar.31, Alexander Brest Museum, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville FL.
- Apr. 15-May 30, Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science, Tallahassee FL.
- Aug. 3-Sept. 9, Florida School of the Arts, St. Johns River Community College, Palatka FL.
- Sept. 15-Nov. 23, Museum of Florida Art (formerly Deland Museum of Art), Deland FL.

Publications: “Studio Visit” juried artist catalog competition, Open Studios Press, Spring 2009.

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2008

Aug.30-Oct. 19, public reception Wed. Oct. 2 -- Liquid Muse (Florida's American Heritage River: The Art of the St. Johns Region) an exhibition of 45 Florida artists, at Thomas Center Gallery, Gainesville FL. Exhibition includes Spence Guerin's Tootoosahatchee and Managed Marsh.

Thurs. Sept. 18: artists Sean Sexton and Spence Guerin speak on Art and Agriculture in St. Johns River Basin, Harn Museum of Art, University of FL, Gainesville FL.

Thurs. Oct. 2nd: Liquid Muse public reception

Fri. Oct. 3rd: All day events include panel discussion 1-3pm with artists Sydney McKenn, Margaret Ross Tolbert and Spence Guerin, speaking about their work, the St. Johns River, and public water resources. 1-3 pm at Santa Fe CommunityCollege, Gainesville FL.

Liquid Muse exhibition will travel in Florida in 2009 to Jacksonville, DeLand, Tallahassee and Palatka.

Publications: “Juried Exhibition in Print” New American Paintings, Vol. 76, Southern Edition, June 2008.

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2005-2007

Working on private commissions in Alaska, Oregon and Florida.

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2004

Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City

Made in Florida: The Contemporary Landscape (four artists: James Couper, Miami; Jake Fernandez, Bradenton; Sean Sexton, Vero Beach; and Spence), The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida

Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, American Academy of Arts and Letters

Group exhibition, Tatistcheff Gallery, New York City

Tiny Works, Project Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

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2003

Group exhibition, A Fall Landscape Show (four artists: Melanie Parke of Michigan; Stephen Dinsmore of Nebraska; Stanley Lewis of back east somewhere; and Spence Guerin) at Wright Gallery, Northport, Michigan, all of October

Group exhibition, The Contemporary Landscape, Mira Mar Gallery, Sarasota, Florida

Received Donor Award, 16th Annual Northern National Art Competion, Nicolet College, Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Group exhibition, Tatistcheff Gallery, New York City

The Spice of Life (Five Florida Artists), invitiational exhibition at Backus Gallery and Museum, Fort Pierce, Florida

Publications: “Juried Exhibition in Print” New American Paintings, Vol. 46, Southern Edition, June 2003

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2002

Received Peninsula Fine Arts Center Award (the highest honor) at Biennial 2002, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia

64th Annual National Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings and Photography, Society of Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida

October International Competition 2002, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida

Locations & Light, Crealde School of Art, Winter Park, Florida. Landscape Paintings by Pennsylvania Artists Scott Noel and Jeffrey Reed and Florida Artist Spence Guerin

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2001

Ten New Artists, group exhibition, Tatistcheff Gallery, New York City

63rd Annual National Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Society of Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida

Art Encounter 2000ne, First All-Florida Jured Exhibition, Naples Art Association, von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida

Honorable Mention, 2D/3D Fine Art Juried Exhibition, Alliance for the Arts, Fort Meyers, Florida

Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Tiny Works V, Project Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

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2000

62nd Annual National Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Society of Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida

Realism 2000, 12th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Cultural Center of Fine Arts, Parkersburg, West Virginia

The Contemporary Landscape, Mira Mar Gallery, Sarasota, Florida

Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Tiny Works IV, Project Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

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1999

Third Annual Tiny Works Invitational, Project Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

Florida and the Southeast: The Gulf Coast Museum of Art Collection, Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Largo, Florida

Benefactor Award, Northern National Art Competition, Northern Arts Council and Nicolet College, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Juror: Christopher Brown, painter

Open Spaces-Private Places, Seven Florida Landscape Painters, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida

Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania

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1998

Tiny Works Short Stories, 2nd Annual Invitational Exhibit, Project Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

"My Cousin Spence" at my cousin Bryant's, San Francisco

Texas National 98, SFA Gallery, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas; Juror: Martha Mayer Erlebacher, painter.

Second Annual National All-Media Competition, Ridge Art Association, Winter Haven, Florida; Juror: Mark Ormond, Curator, Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida

Group Exhibition, Florida Collectors Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Solo exhibition, Resurrection Bay Galerie, Seward, Alaska

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1997

Florida Competitive Exhibition, Part 2, Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Juror: Frank Thompson III, Curator, Asheville (NC) Art Museum

Donor Award, Tenth Northern National Art Competition, Northern Arts Council and Nicolet College, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Juror: Philip Pearlstein.

Inaugural Exhibition, Project Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

National Spring Open Juried Exhibition, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, Pennsylvania

Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Reality Check (Alaska Realism), Decker/Morris Gallery, Anchorage, Alaska

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1996

45th All Florida Exhibition, Boca Raton Museum of Art

61st Annual National Exhibition, Cooperstown Art Association, Cooperstown, New York

National Small Works Exhibition, Schoharie County Arts Council, Cobleskill, New York

Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania

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SELECTED EARLIER GROUP EXHIBITIONS

American Drawing Biennial III, Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary

Cheekwood National Contemporary Painting Competition, Cheekwood Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee. Honorable Mention Award.

Halpert Biennial, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina

Hal Katzen Gallery, New York City

Orlando Museum of Art Biennial Juried Exhibition, Orlando, Florida


 

 

 





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