Gallery to Feature Etchings by Brian D. Cohen

The Gallery at Penn College, on the third floor of Pennsylvania College of Technology's Madigan Library, will host "The Fool's Journey," an exhibit of etchings by printmaker Brian D. Cohen, from March 29 to April 25.

An opening reception for the exhibit will take place Tuesday, April 1, from 4:30 to 7 p.m., with a talk by the artist scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m.; and Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. All exhibits are free and open to the public.

"The Fool's Journey" is a set of 23 etchings loosely based on the traditional tarot deck. Each card presents an archetype of human experience, illuminated through a parallel, symbolic element or quality of the physical world. The composition of each etching is based on a geometric framework derived from study of the history of art and sacred geometry.

"My images are fairly thoroughly planned in placement and composition, everything already in the right place, though I leave the marks and textures to the spontaneity of the etching process itself," Cohen says. "I don't really want to know entirely how the image will look beforehand too many unexpectedly pleasing things may happen to exclude ahead of time the accidental, the lucky, the improvisatory or the momentarily inspired."

Etchings from the Pierrot Lunaire folio, which are based on the 1912 song cycle by Arnold Schoenberg, will also be on display.

Cohen is founder of Bridge Press in Westminster Station, Vt., which publishes limited-edition artist's books, broadsides and etching. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Haverford College and completed his master's degree in painting at the University of Washington.

Cohen has shown in more than 20 individual exhibitions, including a retrospective in 1997 at the Fresno Art Museum, and has participated in more than 150 group shows. He has been a faculty member at The Putney School since 1985 and is the founding director of the school's Summer Programs.

"The Fool's Journey" is part of the college's Current View Artist Series, which showcases contemporary artists working in a variety of media. Sponsored by the college's media arts department, it provides an opportunity to broaden and enrich the educational experience at Penn College.

For more about this exhibit and The Gallery at Penn College, visit online , e-mail or call (570) 320-2445. For general information about the college, visit on the Web, e-mail or call toll-free (800) 367-9222.