Lisbon Meets Lisbon: Show Puts Cities in Frame

LISBON, Ohio – A unique art exhibition featuring works depicting Lisbon and its namesake city in Portugal will open Sept. 16, at Source Gallery, 40 N. Park Ave. in downtown Lisbon, with an artists’ reception at 5 p.m.

It will complement the annual Johnny Appleseed Festival, which opens the next day.

The exhibition, which will run through Oct. 21, has long been a goal of Mark Hamilton, who opened Source Gallery in January.

“Since opening Source Gallery, I have been wanting to highlight local Lisbon art and artists in a special show,” he said. 

The idea for the 55-piece exhibition, titled “Lisbon Meets Lisbon,” arose during the gallery’s recent opportunity to represent the works of conceptual Kurdish artist Ilos Ilyas Elias Kirkan, an abstract painter from Lisbon, Portugal. 

“He is a friend of mine and we came up with the collaborative idea to create a showcase of art from or about the two cities of Lisbon, highlighting art and artists who have captured the beauty, charm, and history that is Lisbon – both our historic Lisbon, Ohio, and our namesake city of Lisbon, Portugal.” 

Hamilton curated the show. It will include “a few surprises” on the theme of the Portuguese capital as well from artist Kathleen Gray Farthing, who plein air painted there earlier this year, Hamilton said.

All of the artists in the upcoming show are residents or natives of Lisbon, Ohio, with the exception of Kirkan and Kathleen Gray Farthing, who is from Alliance. 

The works primarily depict the Columbiana County city, Hamilton said.

“I would like to make this a recurring show at some point,” he said. “I like the concept. I tried to focus on Lisbon, Ohio, and add a bit of Lisbon, Portugal, for fun.”