City News | Wilmington, DE

Donna Usher’s Red Island 

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, City Cultural Affairs Director Tina Betz, and Jerry duPhily of Out & About Magazine invite City residents and art lovers from around the region to the next Art Loop Wilmington tomorrow, Friday, May 6. The popular FREE art exhibition, now in its 34^th year, is a partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and Out & About. Twenty-six galleries in and around Wilmington will participate in this month’s Art Loop. A complete list can be found in the April issue of Out and About.
 
Wilmington’s Redding Gallery, located at 800 North French Street, presents the work of painter Donna Usher, a graduate of the Moore College of Art & Design and the University of Delaware who was an Associate Professor of Art at West Chester University for 25 years. In 2021, Ms. Usher was awarded the Honors College Emerita Designation by the West Chester University Council of Trustees. In addition, in 1999 Professor Usher received the Faculty Merit Award for Creative Endeavors and Collaboration with Students.
 
Donna Usher’s artwork is influenced by the commonalities of patterns, shapes and forms found in nature, such as circles, spheres, organic shapes, microscopic cells, aquatic life, deep space planets, and wind patterns seen from above the earth. Her frequent use of dots is inspired by a trip to Australia to study ancient Aborigine Dot Painting.
 
Ms. Usher’s artworks have been exhibited in over 70 national and international juried and invitational exhibitions. Her artworks are in the Permanent Collections of the National Centre of Fine Arts, Cairo, Egypt; The Museum of Cozumel, Mexico; Reading Public Museum; Verizon Corporate Offices; Franklin Mint, Hercules Chemical Corporation; West Chester University; Moore College of Art & Design; Regional Center for Women in the Arts; Downingtown Public Library; American Restaurant Association Corporate Offices, and numerous private collections.
 
You can view Donna Usher’s exhibition at a reception in the Redding Gallery on Friday, May 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. For more artist information visit: www.DonnaUsher.com 
 
Other featured establishments in May include The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery, The Christina Cultural Arts Center, The Sold Firm, and the Delaware Contemporary. 

The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery, located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, at 820 North French Street, will present Characters, an exhibition from artist Gail Husch running from May 6 1through 30, 2022. A sculptor of whimsical figures and forms, Husch has been named a 2022 DDOA Emerging Artist Fellow in the Visual Arts discipline of Crafts.

After growing up in New Hampshire, Husch attended the University of South Florida, earning a BA in Art Education. She then moved on to Amherst College in Massachusetts for a Master’s in Art History. In 1984, she and her husband made the trek to Delaware, where she pursued a Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Delaware. She’s been a “Delawarean” ever since. Husch also taught art history at Goucher College near Baltimore from 1989 until her retirement in 2017.
 
Her imaginative creations are primarily small clay people who, as Husch describes, “…teeter on the edge of the ridiculous without losing their humanity.” Her figures are heavily inspired by literature and history, and by people she encounters or finds in pictures. Guests are invited to attend the Artists Opening Reception on Friday, May 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. 

     Lauryn Hill

The Christina Cultural Arts Center, at 705-707 North Market Street, invites you to an exhibition of works from multiple artists entitled The Man Cave. Artists whose works will be on display include Karl Williams, Chad Cortez Everett, Milton Downing, Nick Irving, K.O. Simms, and Arnold Floyd. You are invited to an opening reception on Friday, May 6 from 5 to 8 p.m. where refreshments will be served.