Mural to be created during UIU exhibit

Cheri Lee Charlton will be the featured artist at Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery at Upper Iowa University’s Fayette Campus Thursday, November 9 through Friday, December 8.  Charlton will lead an artist talk at 3:30 p.m., followed by a reception until 5 p.m., on November 9.

As part of the exhibit, Charlton will create a mural inspired from “One Thousand and One Nights” a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. The artwork will coincide with UIU’s International Education Week November 13-17.

“We are so excited to have Cheri Lee Charlton visit Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery,” UIU Assistant Professor of Art Laura Gleissner said. “It will be such a treat for our students and the entire community to see the mural develop over the course of a week. We encourage the public to stop by on different occasions to witness its progression firsthand and talk with the artist.”

Charlton specializes in creating whimsical and colorful images for print, surface design, and wall murals. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 2004. In 2001, Charlton spent a year in Florence, Italy, studying fine art and art history at the Studio Art Center International (SACI). She graduated from Ohio University with a Master of Fine Arts in painting in 2007 and relocated to Chicago, where she has continued to develop her career as an art educator and working artist.

Charlton has exhibited artwork in New York, Connecticut, West Virginia, Florida, Cleveland and Chicago. She currently holds positions in the fine arts and illustration departments at Illinois Institute of Columbia College in Chicago.

“While my heart has always been with the fine arts, I have been inspired by how illustration has pushed me to explore new ways of telling stories through the visual arts,” said Charlton. “Illustration has proved to be the most satisfying and effective outlet for me to tell the stories I want to tell, with the images I want to create.”

Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery is located in Edgar Fine Arts Hall at Upper Iowa University’s Fayette Campus. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.