Oakton art professors exhibit at the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago

Mark Palmeri (L) and Moritz Kellerman (R) pose in front of the “Eras, Epics, Eons” sculpture by Palmeri located at Oakton’s Des Plaines campus.
Des Plaines (Aug. 15, 2023) - View new artwork from longtime Oakton College art professors and local residents Moritz Kellerman, Arlington Heights, and Mark Palmeri, Des Plaines, at the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago exhibition – free and open to the public – Sept. 2-28. Meet the artists at the opening reception Sept. 2, 5-7 p.m.

About Moritz Kellerman
Born in Nicaragua, Kellerman attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning an MFA degree, where the work of 20th-century artists Willem de Kooning and Richard Diebenkorn inspired him. In later years, he discovered Old Renaissance Masters, who continue to inspire him today.

Kellerman exhibited at a wide range of college campuses, museums and galleries in both solo and group shows. His works are included in numerous public and private collections nationwide. At Oakton, he has taught Studio Art and Art History for 25 years. To learn more, visit Kellerman’s website: moritzkellerman.com.

“My paintings are a history of complex layers,” said Kellerman. “This complexity of layers is created slowly over time by using the glazing process. I never begin a work with an end in mind. I allow for the creation process to reveal its own story. Every application of paint and medium, each painting's multiple semi-transparent layers of color, work together to form the painting's own individual and particular history.”

About Mark Palmeri
A Des Plaines native, Maine West High School graduate and former Oakton College student, Palmeri received BFA and MFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He joined Oakton over 30 years ago and teaches Drawing, Painting, and 3-D Sculpture. His work has been shown locally, including at Carl Hammer, Robbin Lockett, and Esther Sacks galleries in Chicago and nationally, including at Saint Louis University.

“All of my work is from an ongoing search to coalesce and make physical my fractured emotions and abstract ideas and images,” said Palmeri. “The ‘Futurist Primitive’ works I will be showing are made from various materials and painted upon with acrylic paints. They concern the future and the circumstances in which artists will exist and create images that will be: emblematic, arcane and symbolic. My artworks come from the future.”

The Korean Cultural Center of Chicago is located at 9925 Capitol Dr., Wheeling, Ill.,60090, and is open Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. For more information, please visit www.kccoc.org or call 847-947-4460.

Fine art, theater and music are much more at Oakton College than just academic programs. The arts permeate our campus community, making Oakton a cultural huo for Chicago-based artists. To learn more, visit www.oakton.edu/life-at-oakton/arts-at-oakton.