BIOGRAPHY

Vince Hron was born in Omaha, NE and received a B.F.A. from Drake University in Des Moines, IA (1984), an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI (1987), and studied for a year at the State Art Academy in Karlsruhe, Germany (1987-8) on a UM Graduate Scholarship.  He has received distinguished competitive awards including a Pollock/Krasner Fellowship, and several merit awards from State Art Councils (4 from Nebraska and 3 from Pennsylvania). He has exhibited his work nationally and is in many permanent collections.  He is a full professor of Art at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania's Bloomsburg Campus.  

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 STATEMENT

Hron’s large scale oil and acrylic paintings explore the media’s expressive potential through rigorous analysis of common subjects. Borrowing from varied pictorial traditions, he questions aesthetic hierarchies to engage diverse audiences.  Distorted pictorial space animates his images and encourages reflection on the dynamic interrelationship between the personal, the social, and the environmental.    

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LANDSCAPES and CLOUDSCAPES

These painting owe much to the philosophical notion of the sublime and to various Romantic landscape traditions.  In the contemporary context, the immensity of the sky draws attention to our shared vulnerability to the effects of climate change. I've become fascinated by the endlessly complex fractal nature of clouds, and see in them an apt metaphor for  the dynamic nature of the self. 

 

SCRIBBLES

This work grew from my study of clouds seeking to create the same sort of complexity.  I have made hundreds of these drawings starting each with a line scribbled line as spontaneous as possible followed by a search for compelling shapes.  It is a process of trial and error with each choice impacting the next.  

 

TRUMP-L’OEIL

Trompe-l’oeil, (French: “to deceive the eye”) in painting, is the creation of an optical illusion in which depicted objects appear three dimensional.  In these paintings the trompe l’oeil elements are those that appear to project into our space.  They make reference to the vanitas tradition in painting encouraging reflection on life's brevity.

 

INTERIORS

The use multiple point perspective in these paintings draws the viewer into the space and suggests movement and the possibility of an animate world.

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STILL LIVES

Daily routines offer an opportunity for mindful reflection.  These paintings explore the latent narrative potential in ordinary activity.