Anne Merkley's Art Collection is on Exhibit at Oboler Library

Anne Merkley has been active as an artist in Pocatello since she first attended ISU as a freshman in 1962. She taught drawing for two years as a teaching assistant, and received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1972, among the first applicants in the graduate program. Merkley has since taught art in high school, through Continuing Education and Community Education classes, at the Pocatello Art Center. She has given workshops, plus private classes and lessons over a period of 40 years.

Her portrait paintings of donors hang in the Stephens Performing Art Center, with an Idaho scene in the Pond Student Union Building and a dozen pieces in the Kane Building in downtown Pocatello. Her resume includes hundreds of sales, commissions, shows, and awards from the local to national and international levels, especially watercolors.

Merkley has also supported other artists and their work over a period of 50 years. Her first purchases were of Kathe Kollwitz restrike intaglio prints from a Ferdinand-Roten Gallery traveling representative who came annually to the ISU Campus in the 1960s.

This show represents Merkley’s choice of pieces that have attracted her or compelled her over the years. They might be seen as an extension of herself. They encompass a wide range of styles, subject matter, and cultures from travel and experience, including many local artists, including work by her high school and college instructors and her students. Behind each piece lies a story.

You can view Anne Merkley’s Art Collection on the first floor of Eli M. Oboler Library any time we are open at 850 S. 9th Ave., Pocatello, Idaho.

To see an online preview of this exhibit visit: isu.libguides.com/artexhibit