Via Meridian Museum of Art
An artist known for his large, exuberantly hued, watermedia paintings as well as energetic teaching and lectures, Brent Funderburk is a Charlotte, North Carolina native who has worked as a teacher and administrator for three universities over 40 years. Funderburk is a 2024 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award recipient and William L. Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State University where he taught for 36 years and was recognized with some of the university’s highest academic, teaching and research honors.
There are 105 works in the exhibit; more than 40 from the past two years and 70 from the past six years since the artist retired in 2018 from full-time university teaching. The body of work spans from 1979 to 2024. Many of these have never been publicly exhibited. A good number of works are loaned from private collections of individuals and from public collections.
Funderburk's first one-person show "The Breathing Eye" was exhibited in 1984-85 in a tour that included the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Meridian Museum of Art. Works from "The Breathing Eye" are included in this exhibit, as well as an artwork from his 1986 solo show "A New Earth" that was presented at the Meridian Museum of Art. Funderburk was the Best-of-Show winner in the Museum's 1985 Bi-State Juried Exhibit. This work, "Mirror, Mirror" is included in the show.
"Path of Light" includes most recent works from the series "Re-Inflorescence- A Second Flowering" (2018-present), including the show's signature painting "Path of Light" which is the largest watermedia work the artist has created at nearly eight feet in width. This body of artwork has garnered national and international notice and awards (The National Watercolor Society International Exhibition, Fabriano (Italy) International Biennale, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Artists Magazine, Creative Quarterly and other shows/publications). The series focuses on stories of local blooming plants from the artist's garden and walks.
Several series of drawing and paintings feature Funderburk's forays into the American west, where he and his wife Debby often summer. Some 40 drawings, mostly from life, were completed in situ in the Rio Arriba region of New Mexico during the past seven years, as well as larger acrylic works executed with painting knives on canvas. "Path of Light" also presents Funderburk's drawings from Mississippi, the Appalachian Mountains, Mexico and Italy.
The artist's "Flowering Earth" is a series of pastel drawings of ephemeral plants near his home in north Mississippi, as interpreted in "semi-abstract tone poems", celebrating these often-missed, early blooming plants of the Black Prairie region.
“Path of Light” will open at the Meridian Museum of Art on Oct. 4, 2024. An opening reception will be held that evening from 5:30 to 7:30. The exhibit will be on display until Nov. 30, 2024.
Funderburk will also give an illustrated artist talk at the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience on Oct. 3 at 5 p.m., titled "Inside Nature: Chasing the Path of Light Through Watercolor". The public lecture will explore "the mysterious power and subtle majesty of watercolor in art history and unexpected discoveries the medium has illuminated throughout my life", says Funderburk.
Meridian Museum of Art is supported by its members and patrons, the city of Meridian, the Phil Hardin Foundation, the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Riley Foundation, the Community Foundation of East Mississippi, and the Paul and Sherry Broadhead Foundation.
The museum is located at 628 25th Avenue. Museum public hours are Tuesday – Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Admission is always free. For more information, contact Caleb Phillips at 601-693-1501 or meridianmuseum@bellsouth.net.