The finest in pastel painting of the past year will be on display at the Butler Institute of American Art starting Sunday.
The Pastel Society of America's 40th annual exhibition features award-winning work by 39 artists. The PSA was founded in 1972 by Flora B. Giffuni and is the oldest existing pastel society in America. It is credited with the current renaissance in the art form in North America.
The annual exhibition is featured at the National Arts Club in New York and is considered the premier event for artists in the U.S. and abroad. The Butler exhibition is drawn from the works chosen for the New York show, and the juror was Butler director Louis Zona. This is the second time Zona has juried the annual show.
The Pastel Society of America encourages artistic advancement through prestigious awards distributed during its annual exhibitions. Pastelists showing technical acumen and creative use of pastel techniques are awarded prizes for their achievements. Members winning three cumulative awards are named PSA Master Pastelists. Each year one noted artist is elected into PSA's Hall of Fame.
In recent years, the PSA has been honored guests in exhibitions in Italy, France, Russia and China
The exhibition will be on display through March 3 at the Butler, 524 Wick Ave., Youngstown, in its Flora B. Giffuni Gallery. The gallery opened at the Butler in 2004, and this annual PSA exhibition has been shown there every since that time.