January 7th – February 22nd, 2024
Artists’ Reception: Thursday, January 25th 6-8 pm
“Turning Point,” is an exhibit of new work from The Birmingham Society of Women Painters, some of which is shown below. The exhibit features paintings in oil, acrylic and watercolor selected from this group of over 50 artists by juror, Armin Mersmann.
Microscopic by Katherine Harra 
Hibiscus Party by Shirley Gower 
Blue Fantasy by Shirley Gower 
Remember when . . . friends by Cheryl Haithco 
Still Life with Dark Vase by Loretta Markell
The Birmingham Society of Women Painters
Founded in 1944 to provide formal instruction and workspace for women painters, the Birmingham Society of Women Painters is today an organization of over 50 artists working in diverse media. The BSWP includes professional artists as well as women for whom art is a high-priority avocation. Their work is shown and has won awards in statewide, national and international exhibitions and draws viewers in galleries, public spaces and corporate settings. Member’s pursuits also include authorship of books and reviews, teaching, gallery ownership and management, and service on exhibition juries.
BSWP membership is limited with new members chosen through a highly selective process of nomination and portfolio review. The organization operates on a cooperative basis, with all the members contributing to group projects and initiatives.
The BSWP is highly regarded for its tradition of promoting arts awareness and education. In 1957 the organization won support from business and community leaders to found the Bloomfield Art Association. Three years later, the coalition developed an innovative proposal to transform an obsolete Birmingham public-works facility into a vibrant community center for the arts, which continues to thrive today as the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC).
Armin Mersmann, “Turning Point” Exhibit Juror
Armin Mersmann was born in Remscheid, Germany, in 1955. Along with his parents, he immigrated to the United States in 1962. He grew up in an artistic environment and was greatly influenced and tutored by his father, Fritz, a successful oil painter.
Mersmann feels his career as an artist was inevitable: “I never made the conscious choice to be an artist, it’s just what I did.” After six years of college, Mersmann began a very successful stint as a portrait artist in Chicago, IL. Although commission work was financially rewarding, he stopped doing it and soon found more interest in the fine arts-work that at times is controversial but more satisfying conceptually. “Art, my sanctuary, the very thing that gave me such pleasure, was now reduced to making a living. Art is too precious for me to make decisions based on finances:” This does not mean Mersmann will never do a commissioned portrait; rather, it has to interest him conceptually, and he insists on total control over the image.
Although Mersmann is mainly known for his intense naturalistic graphite drawings, he also works in photography and encaustic wax, which is much more abstract than his drawings. Mersmann has taught drawing, the Creative Process, iPhoneography and Advanced Critique at the American Academy of Art, Chicago, IL; the Colorado Academy of Art, Boulder CO; Northwood University, Midland, Ml; the Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, Ml; and countless workshops within the United States. He lives in Midland, Ml, where he is the Senior Visual Art Curator and Artist in Residence at Midland Center for the Arts.
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The Woods Gallery is located in the lower level of the Huntington Woods Library and is open during library hours.