Nicholas Kilmer Exhibit at the Shiawassee Arts Center

Nicholas Kilmer at the Shiawassee Arts Center's Frieseke Exhibit in 2001

Garden Chairs, oil on canvas, 2002 by Nicholas Kilmer

The grandson of Owosso-native and internationally famous impressionist artist, Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939), will be exhibiting his oil paintings next month at the Shiawassee Arts Center. Nicholas Kilmer's Garden Landscapes, Cambridge and Normandy will be on display March 17 through April 25 with the opening reception on Friday, March 20, 6-8pm. The artist will give a talk about his work at 6:30pm that evening. The show is sponsored by Owosso Graphic Arts.

Kilmer lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was Dean of the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, MA before he began working privately as an art dealer and researcher. He is also an author of a number of books and art catalogues, including A Place in Normandy, a memoir concerning the Frieseke home in Normandy, France. He is editor of a Catalogue Raisonne of Frieseke's artwork and his recent poems have been published in the Paris Review, Western Humanities Review, Salmagundi and Arion. A series of art mysteries, now six in number, has been published by Henry Holt and by Poisoned Pen Press. The most recent, Madonna of the Apes, was published in 2005.

Kilmer has a A.B. from Georgetown University and a M.A. from Harvard University, both in English. His solo and two person exhibitions include an exhibit at the Pierrre Menard Gallery in Cambridge last year. He has also exhibited at the Galerie d'Art International in Solana Beach, CA and Hollis Taggart Galleries in Chicago among many others. His paintings are in numerous private collections and in the collection of the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, GA.

Kilmer's connections to Owosso are warm and of long standing. Kilmer and his wife, Julia have visited several times, not least on the occasion of the opening of the SAC's 2001 Frieseke Chamber Works exhibition, of which Kilmer was the curator. They have generously made their Normandy home available several times to the Shiawassee Arts Center for auction. The scenes to be found in Kilmer's paintings will be familiar to many Owosso natives who have visited both Cambridge and Normandy.

The Shiawassee Arts Center is located at 206 Curwood Castle Drive in Owosso and is open Tuesday through Sunday, 1-5pm. The Arts Center features the artwork of local and statewide artists in eight galleries including the Frieseke Gallery and a specialty Gift Shop. The public is welcome and there is no admission charge. The Shiawassee Arts Council, celebrating its 37th anniversary in 2009, is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to encourage participation and appreciation of the arts. For more information about the exhibit call the Arts Center at 989.723.8354.