Sonoma State University professor's art on display at Green Music Center

A large painting by Mark Perlman of Sebastopol, Sonoma State University art professor emeritus, can now be viewed in the lobby of the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall at SSU.

Perlman, who donated the work to the university, was toasted last Friday night before a concert during a private reception to celebrate the abstract work of art.

A native of Pittsburgh, Perlman started at SSU in 1988 and taught there for more than 25 years. He has had exhibitions in galleries all over the state, the country and the world.

Perlman had Weill Hall’s architecture in mind, as well as its musical acoustics, when he created the work, titled “Tower 2.”

“For this piece, I thought about how towers are built,” Perlman told the SSU News Center.

“This painting has a sculptural context that relies on both the rational and irrational principals of architecture.

“Spatially, it’s structured, but there’s a certain kind of completion that needs to be done with the eye.”

The encaustic painting, which offers a textural element created by the wax and pigment used to make it, hangs against a red wall on the south-facing wall of the lobby, just above the wine bar.

The work of art joins others already on display at the Green Music Center, including photographs of Christo’s Running Fence project in a hallway, a painting by Occidental artist Jack Stuppin in a conference room, and sculptures by Robert Ellison and Bruce Johnson located outside on the Green Music Center grounds.