Light on a Court:
Paintings in Oil on Canvas
by
William Reed Simon

Notre Dame College — South Euclid, Ohio — March 28, 2008 — Notre Dame College’s Clara Fritzsche Library will host “Light on a Court: Paintings in Oil on Canvas” by Notre Dame faculty member Reed Simon.  The show will represent selected works from within the past ten years to the present.  Simon’s artwork focuses on the emotive effect of light on interior and exterior spaces.  The paintings in this exhibit are derived from actual sites.  The work is organized around the idea that for Simon, light plays two roles simultaneously in painting, both as retinal as well as constructed metaphor. 

Simon is an Assistant Professor of Art at Notre Dame College, where he teaches both Fine Arts and Graphic Arts.  He has a B.F.A. in Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art, where also studied portrait painting, printmaking and drawing.  While working on his M.F.A. in Painting at Pratt Institute of Art in New York City, Simon minored in Art History and studied Visual Communication and Photography.  He has worked as an educator, graphic designer and illustrator.  Simon has taught in several area schools including Kent State University, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Institute of Art and Tri-C Western Campus. An accomplished jazz violinist, he often incorporates music into his classroom teaching and can be frequently be seen on weekends performing at various local venues.

     Simon has exhibited his work extensively, both in solo shows and group shows at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Heights Arts Gallery, NOVA, Cleveland Clinic, Pentagon Gallery and most notably in the nationally juried Cain Park Arts Festival where he received the “Judges Selection Award” in 2003.  His work is held in private collections throughout the United States, including the permanent collection of McGraw-Hill in New York City.  His art has also been exhibited internationally when one of his paintings was selected as part of the Lake Erie West Ohio Arts Council Exhibition that traveled to the USA, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Spain and Japan.  Simon is also responsible for one of Northern Ohio Live’s most memorable covers, creating a pastel portrait of Police drummer Stewart Copeland, in town for the premiere of his opera Holy Blood and Crescent Moon, for the cover of the October 1989 issue of the magazine.

A resident of Cleveland Heights, Simon is a member of the South Wing Gallery at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights where he has curated group shows.

The exhibit is free and open to the public and will run from March 28 through
May 2, 2008.  An opening reception will be held on Friday, March 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.  The show may be viewed during library hours:  Monday-Thursday
8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday 1-10 p.m.  For more information, contact Karen Zoller at 216-373-5267 or check the library gallery website at www.NotreDameCollege.edu/library/gallery.aspx.