KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Western Michigan University (WMU) has announced that around 40 paintings by a late WMU professor are now on display at the Richmond Center for Visual Arts.
According to Director of Exhibits Indra K. Lācis, the paintings were created by Dwayne Lowder, who worked as an art professor with WMU from 1966 until 1980. He later retired to Virginia, where he continued to create art on a farm and orchard that he owned.
He passed away in 2018.
“His skill as a visual artist and craftsman spanned oil and acrylic painting, woodworking, stained glass, foundry casting, welding, and color theory,” Lācis said in a statement. “In addition to private collections, his work is in the permanent collection of such museums as the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh; the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Kalamazoo Institute of Art and Western Michigan University.”
Much of the collection was received by way of a donation from John M. Carney, a man who was a friend and former colleague of Lowder. Carney says that the paintings were discovered on the property by a realtor.
Since there were no specified designations for the art pieces, Carney eventually took ownership of them, donating to this new exhibit for WMU. Lācis also says that some of these pieces are on loan from elsewhere.
The Dwayne Lowder exhibit will be on display inside the Richmond Center for Visual Arts until Sunday, March 8. It’s official title is listed as “I Bet You Wouldn’t Give It to Me Even if I Asked.”
More information about the exhibit can be found online through WMU at this link.
