“Al Bremmer: A Retrospective,” featuring work from the late SUNY Oswego art professor emeritus, will start the season for the college’s Tyler Art Gallery.

The exhibition will run Sept. 9 to Oct. 9, with an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16. The reception and exhibition are free to attend and open to the public.

The show features Bremmer’s mixed-media work, which evolved from an essentially linear, polychromatic, modernist point of view into merging with a more organic approach. 

“Although I’ve been interested in the environment and nature for many years, any specific or implied reference to nature as a source for images is obscured by an interest in modernism and the formal elements of painting,” Bremmer said in a previous artist’s statement on his works. “Each individual should bring his or her own previous experience and interest to this work. Nevertheless, I hope that viewers will respond to the sensation of movement and the visual energy of the surface, as well as the complex sense of order, which serves as the catalyst for a complete statement.”

Interests in abstract expressionism, minimalism, formalism, gestural figure drawing and calligraphy influenced these pieces. 

Bremmer, who passed away in 2021, was a well-known Upstate New York artist whose paintings have been exhibited in many regional and national exhibitions. He taught painting and drawing at SUNY Oswego for 35 years, and was art department chair until his retirement in 1995. 

His paintings have graced such exhibitions as the Washington and Jefferson National Painting Exhibition in Washington, Pennsylvania; the National Midyear Exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the Everson Biennial at the Everson Museum in Syracuse; the Westmoreland Art Nationals in Youngwood, Pennsylvania, and the Bradley Print and Drawing Exhibition at Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois. 

Receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri and his master of fine arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art, his mixed media paintings have received numerous awards, including the Nelson A. Rockefeller Purchase Award at the New York State Exposition, the Purchase Award at the Dulin National Exhibition in Knoxville, and the Special Painting Award at the Butler National Painting Exhibition in Youngstown. His works are included in many public and private collections, including the SUNY Chancellor’s residence in Albany. 

When hosting exhibitions, Tyler Art Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, or by appointment. To make appointments, request accommodations to attend or for more information, call 315-312-4581 or email artswego@oswego.edu.