Alva Review-Courier -

The April Artist-in-Residence with the Visual Arts program at Northwestern Oklahoma State University is Daniel Herr. The Brooklyn, New York, native will have an artist talk and experimental drawing workshop on April 24 from 6 to 9 p.m. in Jesse Dunn 324. During the artist talk, Herr will be showing slides of the work he's done in the past few years.

A culminating exhibit of the work he has completed while at Northwestern will be displayed Friday, May 3, from 3 to 5 p.m. in Jesse Dunn Annex room 323. On that same day his small works will be displayed from 6 to 8 p.m. downtown in Graceful Arts Gallery during the First Friday Art walk.

All events are free and open to the public.

Herr has participated in a few other Artist-in-Residence programs before Northwestern's. He completed a residency in Chile with Ben Zawalich, last month's Artist-in-Residence. In addition, he also has completed residencies in Beijing and Spain.

He has exhibited in various galleries around the United States, including Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York; Safe, Brooklyn; Kate Alkarni Gallery, Seattle; M23, New York; Hamill Gallery, Boston University; Lincoln Arts Project, Waltham, Massachusetts; and 2014 SCOPE New York at Asterisk Projects, New York.

Herr combines elements of absurdity with robust color and expressive brushwork. Influenced early on by abstract expressionist painters like Willem de Kooning, Herr also incorporates collage into his visually tumultuous compositions. His work navigates the interactions between pattern, color and intent, mapping each stretch of imagined space with a wry sense of purpose.

Herr also has taken inspiration from two New York painters, George Inness and Basquiat.

"Both are quintessentially American," he said. "One was part of an early American art movement and worked in a way that described the physical beauty of the landscape, like an explorer. The other was part of a more recent movement and painted the cultural reality, the chaotic urban landscape of ugliness. I'm interested in a way to paint that would combine those two."

While creating his artwork at Northwestern, Herr said he's been working with oil paints.

"My work is based in landscape painting," Herr said. "I try to take it apart in order to create an abstract image. That's kind of the central idea."

To view some of Herr's work visit http://www.dherr.com, and for more information contact Kyle Larson, assistant professor of art, at 580-327-8606 or [email protected].