The Brothers of Mercy Art Gallery Announces its Summer Exhibit

‘Masterworks: Watercolors from the Gerald Mead Collection’

The Brothers of Mercy is pleased to present “Masterworks: Watercolors from the Gerald Mead Collection” as its third exhibit of the year at The Art Gallery at the Montabaur Heights independent living community at 4530 Ransom Road.

The gallery is open to the public seven days a week from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. The exhibit runs through September 30. Visitors can also have lunch any day of the week between 11 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. in the dining room next to the gallery by calling 716-407-5102 to make a reservation at least 24 hours in advance. Lunch is $15 per person, payable by cash or check to Montabaur Heights.

Gerald Mead is an award-winning artist, educator, arts writer, collector, curator and leading authority on Western New York art. He serves on committees of several arts organizations and lectures on art and collecting. Since 1987, he has assembled more than 1,800 artworks associated with this region. Thematic exhibits from his collection have been presented at Daemen University, Roswell Park, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Castellani Art Museum, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, CEPA Gallery and the University of London.

“Sharing my art collection with the public has been a passion project of mine for more than 20 years, and my hope is that through this exhibition, the residents and visitors at The Brothers of Mercy Wellness Campus will gain a new appreciation for the past and present artists in our region who have expressed their creativity through the medium of watercolor,” said Mead.

Mead’s exhibit at Montabaur Heights provides a brief historic and contemporary survey of exceptional watercolor paintings by artists who are associated with Western New York by birth or residency. The artworks range from an early 20^th century watercolor by Raphael Beck, a Lockport artist who designed the seal for the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo in 1901, to a recent painting by Kathleen Giles, an award-winning member of multiple national watercolor societies.

The exhibit also includes works by noted artist Charles Burchfield’s daughters, Catherine Parker and Martha Richter; Tony Urquhart, who was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada; noted art educators Walter Garver and Russell Ram, and emerging young artist Alicia Malik. Generally, art on display at The Art Gallery is for sale, but this particular exhibit is a private collection on loan, so the art pieces are not for sale.

The Art Gallery is part of a “Wellness Through Art” on The Brothers of Mercy Wellness Campus. The goal of the program is to encourage residents to continue thriving by remaining active in the different forms of art they enjoy creating or viewing. Activities that can enhance quality of life for residents include artist presentations, hands-on demonstrations and trips to other art galleries.

“We are so grateful to Gerald Mead for curating and loaning this exhibition of artworks by twenty-six distinguished masters of watercolor from his vast collection of regional art and thereby uniting his notable embrace of fine arts with our Wellness through Art initiative,” said Mary Jo Ketchum, Chairperson of the Campus Foundation’s Advisory Council & Art Committee. “This exhibition represents a special opportunity for visitors to feel inspiration, recall memories, sense harmony and quietly consider what may have inspired the artists to create these masterworks.”

The Brothers of Mercy thanks its legacy sponsors for their support of The Art Gallery: Joe Basil Chevrolet, Buffalo Pharmacy, Family Choice of New York, Highgate Medical Group, ACSI, Picone Construction, Hoffman Hanafin & Associates, Inc., and The David & Joan Rogers Family Foundation.