By Theo Jean Kenyon
Posted May. 18, 2008 @ 12:01 am
May 18, 2008 at 5:00 PM
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In the 1960s, '70s and early '80s, Peoria's Downtown was the biggest shopping mall in central Illinois.
You can revisit that time when the Peoria Art Guild exhibits the photographs of former Peorian Lynn Swigart, whose collection portrays the mid-20th century business scene in clear, clean images.
The exhibit of about 50 images opens Friday with a reception for Swigart and two other artists whose work also will be going on display - painters Gerard Erley and Nichole Gronvold-Roller - from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the guild's galleries in the Foster Art Center, 203 Harrison.
Swigart and his family are coming from Gloucester, Mass., to attend the opening.
Many of the photographs in this documentary exhibit are from the collection of the Peoria Historical Society, to which Swigart donated them in November 2006. At that time, the historical society said it planned to exhibit the photographs before placing them in its archives at Bradley University.
Sheryl Cohen, a guild board member who is curating the show, said the exhibit also includes 23 images that were not part of the original donation to the historical society but will become part of the collection when the show is over.
So now is your opportunity to revisit a Downtown Peoria that was still home to such familiar places as three department stores, the Jefferson Hotel, Brooks Fashion
Store, Walgreen's, Logan Printing, Kellstedt's office supply store, the Peoria Creamery, J.C. Shaffer Electric, Illinois Bell Telephone Co., the Hotel Lee and a host of retail stores. The three dozen photographs going on display date mainly from the 1960s through the early 1980s.
For longtime Peorians, they will evoke memories of a time when Downtown Peoria was a busy commercial center with its multi-story department stores, specialty shops and businesses.
Swigart, who was born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1940 and grew up in the central Illinois community of Clinton, came to Peoria to attend Bradley University. After graduation, he took a job with Caterpillar Inc. in 1963 and worked in parts sales and dealer services before being named service publications manager in March 1967. He stayed at Caterpillar until 1988, last serving as the company's manager of communications services, before moving east.
When Swigart gave his collection to the Peoria Historical Society, he recalled that he first began taking photographs of the Downtown area before the Jefferson Hotel was "imploded" in 1978 to make way for the Peoria Civic Center.
"I thought if anybody would appreciate these photos, Peoria would," he said.
He continues to take photographs in Gloucester - still with traditional gelatin prints instead of digital - and has held numerous one-man and group exhibitions.
Here in Peoria his work can be seen at Caterpillar, Lakeview Museum, the Peoria Art Guild, Tower Park Gallery, Corn Stock Theatre and Bradley University's Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts.
Page 2 of 2 - His work also has been exhibited in locations outside Illinois, including universities in Louisiana, Connecticut, California and Pennsylvania, as well as in private collections.
Erley paintings
"I seek to discover the poetry in a solitary tree or a passing cloud and to communicate that poetry in paint."
For Gerard Erley, that artist's statement reflects his increasing focus on landscapes, such as those included in his exhibit opening here Friday.
A solitary oak dominates one landscape that so pleased the Galena Gallery in Galena that its owners purchased the painting, titled "Sunstruck Oak."
"I sold it, then I borrowed it back for the exhibit here in Peoria," he says of the piece, which is featured on a postcard promoting the art guild exhibit.
An artist who supports himself with his painting, Erley admits it's a "roller coaster ride," but his work is increasingly well known.
The Cleveland Clinic commissioned him for three paintings in its cardio-vascular unit, and his work is shown in such places as Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, Ga.; and Virginia as well as his hometown DeKalb Gallery. He also exhibits in the Peoria Art Guild's annual Fine Arts Fair on the riverfront.
"I sometimes work from nature, from my head, not from looking at photographs," says Erley, who has a master's degree in painting from Illinois State University.
Local Color Series
Nichole Gronvold-Roller, who likes weathered buildings and manipulating the rules of perspective in her paintings, will be exhibiting some of her favorite works as part of the guild's Local Color Series featuring the work of local artists.
Her work was on display last spring in an exhibit at the First United Methodist Church titled "Structures," which her slightly askew realistic paintings of buildings with their bright colors and wry sense of humor.
Gronvold-Roller is a native of the northwestern region of Minnesota and graduated from Minnesota State University at Moorhead with a bachelor of fine arts degree in education in 1997. She teaches high school art in Tremont.
Theo Jean Kenyon can be reached at 686-3190 or [email protected].
Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/x1192319992/Previously-seen-in-Peoria/?tag=2#ixzz2sNBeCu6c
