Press Releases
Kansas Artist Phil Epp to Visit Kazakhstan with Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program
September 14, 2009
Phil Epp of Newton, Kansas, will travel to Kazakhstan in September 2009 as an American Artist Abroad sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program.
Mr. Epp, a painter and photographer, will visit Astana, Shymkent, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, between September 13 and 20, to engage in programming that includes lectures and master classes, with a variety of schools, cultural institutions, students, and local artists.
Mr. Epp currently has three paintings on display in U.S. Ambassador Richard E. Hoagland’s official residence in Astana as part of a group exhibition of thirteen works by contemporary American artists. This exhibition highlights the commonalities between Kazakhstan and the United States, particularly, for Mr. Epp, the striking similarity between his beloved Flint Hills in Kansas and Kazakhstan’s high Assy plateau, both of which still support traditional cowboys and their herds.
According to Ambassador Hoagland, “I have chosen landscapes and farm scenes from the American Mid-West, where I was born and grew up, because I find the very same views in Kazakhstan, especially in the agricultural regions around Astana. Both our nations share this essential bond to the land, to the raising of crops and animals.” As well as landscapes, the art exhibition includes minutely detailed paintings of tulips, a plant that originated in the mountains of Central Asia, and became highly prized in the Ottoman Empire and traded abroad. There is also a traditional quilt, whose method of fabrication would be familiar to any Kazakh quilter.
Mr. Epp eschews artistic labels and does not like to be classified by locality, ethnicity, culture, faith, or other tag. His work may be characterized by clarity, a lack of human presence, and often a low horizon line that allows for a dominant, active, and expressive sky. “I am searching for images and icons in the empty landscapes that are communicable and universal,” states Mr. Epp, who returns repeatedly to the great open space of the plains, both in his art and endless photographic wanderings.
For over 40 years, the Art in Embassies Program has exhibited original works of art by U.S. citizens in the public rooms of U.S. embassy residences worldwide. Now the Program is sending some of its participating artists to the countries where their works are displayed. The goal of this initiative, American Artists Abroad, is to extend the exhibitions beyond the walls of the residences into local communities.
For further information, visit www.philepp.com and http://aiep.state.gov.
