Public Reception - Clifford Tresner: Swimming in the Sky

Public Reception – Clifford Tresner: Swimming in the Sky

✨ Join us for the public reception of Clifford Tresner: Swimming in the Sky on Thursday, September 25 from 5:30–7:30 PM at the Masur Museum of Art!

Celebrate the launch of this captivating solo exhibition featuring Tresner’s abstract sculptures and mixed media works that playfully explore weight, space, and form.

Clifford Tresner: Swimming in the Sky will be on view from August 21 – November 1, 2025. Don’t miss the chance to see this imaginative and immersive body of work!

Cliff Tresner’s Swimming in the Sky brings together paintings, woodworking, and steel sculpture to explore imagination rooted in childhood nostalgia. Abstract forms that are reminiscent of toys appear across paintings and sculptures in pastel hues and organic, totemic shapes, evoking the boundless feeling of gazing skyward and finding shapes in the clouds. When installed in space, the works emphasize a tactile and visual dialogue between wood, metal, and painted surface. Through deliberate contrasts between structure and spontaneity, Tresner navigates the space between work and play, invoking openness, whimsy, and the endless potential of imagination.

About the Artist:

Clifford Tresner attended Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN, and earned a BFA in Sculpture/Woodworking in 1990. He received his MFA from The University of Mississippi in Oxford in 1994.

Mr. Tresner began his teaching career in earnest in 1997 as an assistant professor of art, tenure track at the University of Louisiana, Monroe, LA, where he taught all levels of sculpture and drawing. Mr. Tresner moved to teaching painting and drawing in 2013. He has held many positions over his career, most recently as the William D. Hammond Endowed Professor of Liberal Arts, 2017 – 2020 and the Art Program Coordinator at the University of Louisiana Monroe.

Supported by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, as administered by the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council. Funding has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.