May 2016 - Daryl Ann Dartt Hurst

Daryl Ann Dartt Hurst is making her seventh appearance at the Rochester Public Library. Dartt Hurst is known throughout the seacoast region for her "fearless palette" and bold abstract paintings. Her most recent solo exhibit was in the Gateway Gallery at Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, NH.

In the Library exhibit, "Black Ground" is a series of new paintings and drawings influenced by recent world events, including the death David Bowie which resulted in the piece, "Planet Earth is Blue". Many of the pieces in this series are predominantly black, which was aided by the gift of a pad of black paper. Hurst says her college experience working with metallic ink on black background lithographs made this work feel like familiar territory. Other pieces also explore the themes of death and the darker side of life. Related pieces not on a black ground are also new. The "Pacific Suite" series includes two large canvases which are dedicated to two people significant to the artist who passed away in the last year.

Dartt Hurst was recognized by the City of Rochester for her contribution to the visual arts in 2014, was nominated for the Seacoast Spotlight Award for Non-Traditional Painting in 2015 and is on the Rochester Museum of Fine Art's Curatorial Board. Her exhibit is the first floor of the Library and runs through the end of May.