“New Painting”

An online exhibition juried by New York-based curator Rachel Gugelberger through the Site:Brooklyn Gallery
Click here to view the exhibit and Rachel Gugelberger’s exhibition essay also titled New Painting

A short section from “Wall 3”, which includes my work:

A sense of both real and imaginary place, our changing relationship to the natural world, and the fragility of the human and nonhuman existence permeate the referential and representative works on view. Here are representations of visual “reality,” but less straightforward—more oblique, seen through gauzy hazes, overlaid with a multiplicity of forms, hidden messages and codes. The natural world touches the grotesque, while specific geographic locations—from upstate New York to the Sargasso Sea and to the wider universe, nature (from weather conditions to weeds breaking through the sidewalk)—are grounding forces, but also mystical channels that offer glimpses of other realms of consciousness and potentialities, suggesting alternate realities and ways of seeing. The human figure is often barely visible, a human touch receding in the pictorial field, guided of course, by the steady yet questioning hand of that classic, complex, and most resilient of visual arts practitioners: the painter.

“11th Annual National Juried Exhibition”

A group exhibition juried by curator Sarah Magnetta who, after seeing a common thread between the selected works added the title Capturing the Present. Click here to read her full curator’s statement
Charles W. and Norma C. Carroll Gallery, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, January-February, 2022
Slippage, oil and encaustic on canvas, was awarded first place in this exhibition

“(re)BUILDING”

A “post-pandemic” in-person group exhibition at Atlantic Gallery in Chelsea (New York) July 2021, juried by artist and author Jerry McLaughlin.
Click here to view the works from the exhibition; exhibition catalogue is available by clicking here

This past year art has been a refuge for many, a challenge for others, yet creativity prevails as we weather the ongoing storm. As artists we rely on numerous forces intrinsic to our creative process, navigating difficult and challenging periods, giving rise to beautiful and complex works. Now is the time to gather our resources and strength, and rebuild: our lives, our world, our art. Atlantic Gallery selected works from this past year (2020-21) that inspire, and embrace, the spirit of rebuilding, renewal and resiliency. Submitted artwork had to utilize wax, whether in the form of cold wax, encaustic, or both, in two-dimensional or three-dimensional works.

“Manifesting Presence”

An exhibition of work by Kristina Arnold, Leslie Nichols, and Yvonne Petkus
Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY, September-November 2020

Artists Kristina Arnold, Leslie Nichols, and Yvonne Petkus come together in Manifesting Presence, an exhibition exploring the ways in which they as individual artists and as a collective hold space – and how biological, psychological, historical, and social environments shape this process. Arnold, Nichols, and Petkus began a group called the Critique Collective in Bowling Green, Kentucky six years ago. This will be their first time exhibiting as that collective. From large, wall-sized installations to intimately scaled works on paper, Manifesting Presence will include Arnold’s installations of cast glass, mixed fiber media, paper, and ink, Nichols’ text-based works created with tools including manual typewriters and a letterpress printing press, and Petkus’ sculptural paintings on plexiglass, mylar, panel, and canvas.

'Proof of Existence: An Exhibit of Work by Contemporary Artists of Bosnian and Balkan Origin' curated by Yvonne Petkus

February 17, 2018

January 22 - April 6, 2018, University Gallery, Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center (FAC)
Gallery Hours Mon–Fri 8:00 - 4:30
Extended Hours Mon & Weds until 6:30

Mark your calendars for our two receptions and talks:

HAD Collective Artist Talk
(with introduction by Professor Yvonne Petkus)
Reception to follow in Gallery
Wednesday, February 28, 5:30pm – FAC 156

Artist Aida Šehović & Filmmaker Rialda Zukić Short Film Screening/Panel Discussion
Reception to follow in Gallery
Tuesday, April 3, 6:00pm – FAC 156

All events are Free and Open to the Public

artists represented in exhibition:
Ilhana Babić
HAD Artist Collective (Muhamed Bešlagić- Hamo, Anel Lepić, Damir Sarač)
Emira Hajdar
Danielle Mužina
Diane Ramic
Maja Ružnić
Aida Šehović
Selma Selman
Shoba
Rialda Zukić

Sponsored by the WKU Office of International Programs, the Office of the Dean of Potter College of Arts & Letters, the WKU Department of Art, the Kentucky Museum, and all those who generously contributed to our WKU SpiritFunder Campaign

For updates:
https://www.wku.edu/art/gallery/proof.php
or on Facebook at WKU Department of Art News

'Arctic Residues - Sightings' at The Downing Museum

February 25, 2017

Arctic Residues - Sightings
Exhibition runs January 31 - March 18, 2017
Artist Talk: Thurs, Feb 9, 6:00pm
Closing Reception: Fri, March 17, 5:00–8:00pm
The Downing Museum
4801 Morgantown Road, Bowling Green, KY
Press release:
Arctic Residues – Sightings is an exhibition of work created by Yvonne Petkus, WKU Professor of art, during a recent sabbatical that included two artist residencies in Iceland (SÍM Artist Residency in Reykjavík and the Hvítahús Artist Residency on the more remote Snæfellsnes Peninsula), as well as time processing that experience back in her U.S. studio.
In this work, Petkus continues to explore ideas of struggle, the residues of trauma, and the forces of nature against the body. This exhibition presents an arc of influence by including the work developed just before Iceland, the work completed in Iceland (paintings on Mylar that see forces of nature as physical and existential pressures), and the work that has continued since Iceland (paintings and monotypes on mylar, canvas, and plexiglass). She found that her process – which sieves visual and cognitive input through a physical back and forth, a struggle of marks in continual negotiation – made sense for Iceland, a place of dynamics, of extremes, where questions of vulnerability and endurance were seen with new intensity.
This work was made possible with support from the WKU Office of International Programs and Potter College of Arts & Letters.
https://www.wku.edu/downingmuseum/exhibits.php

photo by Joon Sung

'Processing the Scape: Resistance' (detail)

photo by Joon Sung

Frist Center for the Visual Arts Workshop

January 14, 2016

Absence and Presence: Using Drawing to Process Artistic Influence

A three-day workshop led by artist and professor Yvonne Petkus in conjunction with and in response to two exhibitions at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, TN): Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, Masterpiece Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti and Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art (an exhibition of contemporary works that attempt to find the "presence in absence" through a range of visual and physical means). Workshop organized by Associate Educator for Community Engagement at the Frist, Rosemary Brunton. November 7, 14, and 21, 2015