Harry Orlyk – A Longer View

To view this exhibition online, please click here.

In Harry’s words:

“A quarter century of painting has been an act of the imagination to determine who and what I am with respect to the earth and sky. Process, rather than product oriented, searching for the daily painting, has become a way of living in relationship with the earth. To become a human being, a part of nature rather than someone separate observing it from the outside, like hunter-gathers, I am led from one opportunity to the next, being directed by seasonal stages. The relationship has become the trust I give it to show me where my next painting will be. Each painting entails facing a swath of creation and observing something of its story, becomes a long log of small truths.

…

Sitting in the cold in a traditional way, I paint what is before me, sometimes as still as the Eskimo who earns his family’s meal by waiting and watching and thinking. He kills an animal; I make an image. We are linked together by our years of long studied views across a common land. I am so cold sometimes with the windows of my black Dodge van rolled up tight (I never turn on the engine once parked to paint, afraid of carbon monoxide). In a cold-induced trance, painting continues all by itself. Often the final dim presence of light exits while both hands are still at work and I do not know what I have made until the painting is brought into the light of a room.”

The Laffer Gallery is honored and priviledged to present a retrospective for artist Harry Orlyk entitiled “A Longer View” – an event that will feature over 200 pieces spanning Harry’s long and prolific career. This comprehensive salon-style exhibition will run from February 25 through March 26, 2023.

We invite you to celebrate this special exhibition by joining the Gallery and Artist for an opening reception on Saturday, February 25, 2023 from 5pm until 8pm.