THE POWER OF COLOR: A STEPHEN ROLFE POWELL RETROSPECTIVE

The Art Center of the Bluegrass presents a groundbreaking Stephen Rolfe Powell retrospective August 26 through October 29, 2022, and we invite you to explore this spectacular exhibition. The retrospective will feature pieces from Powell's first clay works through his early Teaser series to his final Zoomer series, while also presenting memorabilia from the life of this dynamic artist. The three gallery spaces at the Art Center will showcase the progression of Stephen's work and life, which was always evolving through his love of color and his inspiration of nature.

About Stephen Rolfe Powell

Stephen Rolfe Powell was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1951. He studied painting and ceramics at Centre College and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1974. After working as an art instructor at Draper State Prison and Indian Springs School, Powell attended LSU in 1980 and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 1983. It was during this period that Powell first encountered hot glass, which quickly became his obsession.

Powell exhibited his work nationally and internationally and participated in workshops, demonstrations, and lectures across the globe. He worked in Russia, Ukraine, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan and demonstrated at multiple Glass Art Society Conferences, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. One of the highlights of his travels was an exhibition of his work at Venezia Aperto Vetro in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy. Powell was one of only eight American artists invited. His intricate, colorful vessel sculptures can be found in museums across the country – including Louisville's Speed Museum and the Cincinnati Art Museum – as well as in private collections and the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto.

Stephen Powell at Centre College

Powell had arrived at Center College in Danville in 1970 as an unfocused, rambunctious, long-haired 18-year-old freshman. At the time, Centre had a total of one art teacher who taught all the art history and virtually all the studio classes. Powell drifted into art, focusing on ceramics and large abstract paintings. He became interested in glass much later, while working on an M.F.A. at L.S.U.

Soon after returning to Centre on a temporary appointment to teach in 1983, he talked some suspicious college administrators into letting him build a small glass furnace using materials he'd begged from Corning, Incorporated and other local industries. (He had a famously winsome manner.) The hot-glass program at Centre he created ex nihilo soon turned into a major attraction both at the college and in the town.

Powell was often called "the Pied Piper of hot glass" for his ability to attract so many unlikely students into hot glass professions. Over the next 32 years, many of his students—who'd been sent to Centre to prepare them to take over family businesses or become doctors or lawyers—were captivated by Powell's hot glass and went on to successful hot-glass careers in start-up companies and universities across the country.

As a testament to his passion for glass education, Powell was honored with Kentucky's "Teacher of the Year" award in both

1999 and 2000. In 2004 he was presented with the Acorn Award by the Kentucky Council on Post-secondary Education and in 2010 he received the Artist Award of the Governor's Award in Arts. In 2012, Powell was presented with the Distinguished Educator Award from the James Renwick Alliance in Washington, D.C.

Stephen Powell and the Art Center

Stephen Powell was one of the founding members of the Community Arts Center (now Art Center of the Bluegrass). In 2003, a group of dedicated art-lovers undertook a $1.4 million restoration of a historic federal building, originally constructed as a post office in 1909. Serving on the initial Board of Directors for the art center, Powell helped secure the necessary funding for the project and shaped the vision that brought the organization to life. Today, the Art Center serves as a creative hub for the southern Bluegrass region.

In 2019, the Art Center was honored to acquire two of Powell's glass "Zoomers," the series he was exploring at the time of his death. These two 5' tall glass pieces, displayed in the entrance lobby of the Art Center, feature a honeycomb pattern of colors that represents the way nature grows from circular forms to hexagons. Powell selected the pieces himself for the Art Center prior to his death, identifying them as ideal pieces for the space due to their beautiful interaction with the light. Memorial contributions funded the majority of their acquisition. Other work by Stephen Powell can be found locally at the Boyle County Public Library.

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