FVCC gallery features surrealist painter

The Wachholz College Center’s Wanda Hollensteiner Art Gallery on the campus of Flathead Valley Community College features the work of former FVCC instructor and surrealist painter this fall.  

The show features the work of Marvin Messing including a selection of his oil paintings, sculptures and intaglio prints. It opens with a reception from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 25.  

The exhibit runs through Nov. 3.  

Messing was born in Freeport, Illinois, and attended college at the Art Institute of Chicago on a Guggenheim Scholarship. His time there was interrupted by World War II, in which he enlisted and served in the Navy. In the 1960s, Messing became actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement which ended up being one of the most prolific periods of his artistic career.  

Messing taught portraiture and oil painting at FVCC for 11 years before retiring. Messing’s artistic influences were drawn from Salvador Dali and Francisco de Goya.  

He believed that artists had a duty to inform and evoke deep thought about the human condition and he explored these themes throughout his oil painting, sculpture and printmaking. Toward the end of his career, he described his style as “contemplative art” and often stated “what I am attempting to say is not as important as the viewer’s response.” 

Messing died in 2014.  

The gallery is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and during WCC showtimes for patrons with tickets to WCC performances. To find information about the Wachholz College Center, visit wccmt.org.