About Gregory Huebner

Gregory is Professor of Art Emeritus, Wabash College.

Gregory Huebner received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Art in 1971 from St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, KS. In 1973, he received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. He taught at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, for 37 years (1974-2011), serving as Chair of the Department for 23 years, and holding the rank of Full Professor of Art since 1990. He has had 32 solo exhibits and been featured in 85 group and juried exhibitions, receiving several awards for his paintings. His work is represented in 33 public collections and over 90 private collections. He currently resides in Indianapolis, IN, where he is artist-in-residence with Virtusa Corporation.

Featured Works

RITUAL SERIES

About the "Ritual" Series

For a few years now I have been pursuing the theme of Ritual in my paintings. During my years as a professor of Art at Wabash College I became a student of ritual while preparing a class I taught for twenty years entitled: The Spirit Visualized: Ritual Objects and Native American Culture.

Along with the study of ritual is the fact that I have always been more interested in the “unseen” than that which we see in the natural world. For this reason abstraction has been my main means of visual expression for all my adult life. To create a painting that never existed in any prior form and has no visual connection to the natural world can be a somewhat shamanistic experience. In ritual the shaman will call on the elements in the spirit world and make visible the unseen through song, dance, medicine-bundle and rattle in hopes of bringing forth something of a healing nature to an individual or society. In the studio I engage the elements of art and my abilities as an artist to bring forth a painting that until that moment was unseen, but may now provide some spiritual or emotional value to an individual or society.

Rituals exist at many levels in our lives. Some are barely noticed such as the mundane daily ritual of preparing for work or getting the kids out the door for school. Other rituals such as the transition from childhood to adulthood, from lover to parent, from young to aged and life to death are more challenging and require more thoughtful effort and energy than we are sometimes able to provide. Ritual brings forth an alignment of the spiritual, mental and physical to create harmony in an individual or society. So it is important that we reflect on our life situations and embrace or invent rituals that can assist us to successfully move forward in a difficult world.

Each painting in this collection is the visualization of a personal ritual for an “unseen” circumstance and required thoughtful and engaged participation on my part. I only number the paintings and do not offer descriptive titles because I do not wish to set a focus for the viewer. Rather, I hope the audience will let the painting present itself as a possible ritual image that will allow the viewer to align the spiritual, mental and physical in their own lives.

Gregory Huebner