05/05/2011-06/02/2011
From May 5 through June 2, the Allegany Arts Council's Saville Gallery will present "Compositions," featuring paintings by James Germaux and paintings & collage by Christine Hahn. An opening reception for this exhibition will be held on Saturday, May 7 from 5-8PM, in conjunction with the Arts Walk in Downtown Cumberland. The opening reception is free and open to the public. For additional information, please call 301-777-ARTS (2787).

James W. Germaux spent his youth in Pittsburgh and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education. He now resides in Frederick Maryland. Since moving to Maryland he has been included in juried shows at The Washington County Museum of Art as well as The Delaplaine Center for Visual Arts. He has exhibited one man shows at The Artists Gallery, The Delaplaine Center for Visual Arts, Frederick Cellars, and Frederick Community College where he is an adjunct professor and teaches Sculpture.

Also a trained printmaker and sculptor, Jim paints in an expressive, free, organic style with emphasis on elegant line and vibrant color. His work examines our relationships with our environment and captivates the many moods of the human psyche. "What I enjoy about painting is exploring shape and color and their varying effects upon one another. Although I start with a specific sketch I've drawn, it often is overshadowed by an intuitive process leading me places I hadn't originally planned to go".

Christine Hahn grew up in Ohio and Texas and studied studio art, graphic design and art history at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Hunter College in New York, and Montgomery College in Maryland. She has worked in a variety of media and forms including painting, photography, new media, print, music, and performance. Before exhibiting paintings and digital prints in the early 1990s, Hahn produced a body of work as a NYC and European based artist, most often in collaboration with other artists and musicians. Later she was employed as a New Media Specialist by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC, designing and producing virtual exhibitions.

Ms. Hahn has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. In 2009, she was included in Looking at Music: Side Two at the Museum of Modern Art and The Pictures Generation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, Austria, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and Hamburg Kunsthalle in Germany, as well as in private collections in the US and Europe. "I believe, that outside of formal considerations, communication is the essence of art. For me the idea is foremost. Then I select the medium which best tells the story. My pieces are generally expressionistic and semi-abstract which gives me the ability to communicate thoughts and feelings freely and gives the viewer plenty of room for conjecture and participation in the work."