The Grand Gallery is open for ticketed events and by appointment through the ticket office. Appointments are scheduled in 30 minute increments inside the 10-3 pm Monday through Friday normal schedule. Requests outside of the normal schedule will be accommodated if staffing is available. Click the request button above and include contact information and requested time.
Also we have a monthly Arty Hour dates/times will be posted.
raymond PAPKE
The Grand Gallery is proud to present LOST AND FOUND, an exhibition from award-winning artist RAYMOND PAPKE of art employing abstraction, assemblage, repurposed materials for transformations that captivate the mind’s imagination, on now through September 20.
Papka's artwork employs a wide variety of imagery and found objects; his objects are often remnants of items gathered from flea markets, yard sales, books, antique shops, trash dumps, or sometimes literally found on the ground. These objects are then repurposed to fit with a story that is found in each art piece. He draws inspiration from history, science & astronomy, mysticism, art history, Victorian ephemera, books/text, and industrial decay (i.e. just about anything old and rusty). His work blends elements of the everyday with the extraordinary, and each piece invites the viewer into its own world.
Papka was born in Thermopolis Wyoming in 1945. Having grown up in a remote, rural small town, he spent a lot of time at the local library where he developed a fascination with books. He also became attracted to various small objects that were often discarded and then found by the eye of an object admirer, such as old utensils, buttons, coins, arrowheads and rusty metal remnants. Books and found objects came together through Papka’s education with undergraduate studies in zoology and chemistry, graduate studies in anatomy and neuroscience, and long career as a research scientist.
Papka is a self-taught artist, although he had abundant experience in photography, composition, printing, etc., as part of his research, and woodworking as a life-long hobby. Prior to his retirement from academics, he began to experiment with encaustic painting (beeswax resin) and assemblage using books, shadow boxes, and wood panels as substrates coupled with found objects that are often repurposed in order to tell stories with his art. He has won numerous prizes at art festivals across many states and has had exhibitions in libraries, museums, and art centers. His work has been exhibited in galleries from California to Tennessee and locally in Kentucky. He lives on a small farm near Versailles and Midway, KY where he has studios in his home and a woodworking shop in his barn.
