Pop-Up Exhibition Richard Claraval & Mona Wiley

Richard Claraval is an award winning draftsman and sculptor. Similar to the way a jazz performer uses a familiar song as a starting point for improvisation, he uses the Renaissancesque human figure as inspiration for creating abstract expressionist gesture.

Throughout history, various harmonious forms have been placed near the figure to extend its gesture, such as the swirling draperies of Baroque and Renaissance paintings. What Claraval wants though is not just to have complimentary forms exist in the same space as the human figure, but actually have them flowing from, and into it, thus integrating the two into a single, more complex form.

Claraval received a B.A. in art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1977. His drawings have been in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the Eastern U.S., including The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts, North Carolina; Carnegie Museum of Art; and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, among others. Claraval received a juror’s award at an Associated Artists of Pittsburgh’s Annual Exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Art and a juror’s award at a group exhibition at Panza Gallery. His work is in numerous collections, including the Westinghouse Corporation.

Mona Wiley, a German born, Egyptian/Italian artist, is emotionally driven to express herself on canvas. Her work involves intense and free flowing emotions that transcend through painting mediums to show themselves as bright colors, irregular proportions, and varying textures. Each work is a process and is directly linked to a specific moment of emotion or conflict.

Wiley creates these pieces because she has a desire to extricate her inner thoughts and emotions into visual concepts. The paintings are incredibly personal for her and yet they also arouse emotional responses in the viewer as well.

Wiley is currently living and working in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Master’s Degree in Professional Leadership with an Arts Leadership concentration at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.