Boston-based artist Sean Downey, who is inspired by the American West, is displaying 10 paintings and three sculptures in an exhibit titled “Recent Work” at Northern Essex Community College’s ArtSpace Gallery located in the Harold Bentley Library on the Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St. The runs through Saturday, December 1.

An opening reception with the artist will be held Friday, October 26, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the ArtSpace. The exhibit is free and open to the public during library business hours, which are Monday through Thursday, 2 to 9 p.m., Friday, 2 to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The gallery is closed Sundays and holidays.

Many of his works are colored by his own personal memories of growing up in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.

“My current body of work is an aggregate of sources, images, and fictions drawn from American history and seen through the lens of autobiography and poetic narrative,” says Downey. “I am particularly interested in the American West as a location and a jumping-off point for allegorical images that nod to cinema and history-painting, but that ultimately tell a much less linear story.”

Downey received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Art in Painting from Boston University. He has shown locally and nationally, most recently at the LaMontagne Gallery in Boston and Flying Object in Hadley, MA, as well as the University of Maine Museum of Art and TaB Fine Art in Tabernash, CO.

He is the recipient of the Theodore and Jane Norman Award for Faculty Scholarship, Brandeis University Research Grant, 2011-12.

For additional information on this exhibit contact mmannheimer@necc.mass.edu