Huntington Museum of Art to Exhibit the Work of Stan Sporny

Teach Them to Dream: The Art & Influence of Stan Sporny will be on view at the Huntington Museum of Art from Sept. 10 through Dec. 30, 2022. A free opening reception for this exhibit takes place on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at HMA.

Stan Sporny (American, 1946-2008) was an accomplished professional artist and an inspiring Marshall University professor, passionately dedicated to helping his students achieve success. He aimed to revolutionize oil painting with his brand of non-toxic solvents and mediums: “The Sporny Solution.”

Born in Philadelphia, Sporny could remember wanting to be an artist by age eleven. He attended the Philadelphia College of Art from 1964 to 1968 and the University of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1972, where he studied under noted artists such as Neil Welliver, Red Grooms, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, and Elaine de Kooning. During the summer of 1972, he was sponsored by Katz to attend the prestigious Skowhegan School in Maine. That same year he received an Albright Scholarship to study in Sri Lanka, where he resided for nine years. Sporny taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge from 1987 to 1988 before becoming a beloved educator at Marshall University for the rest of his life. He received a Federal Art-in-Architecture Grant in 1993 to create 12 paintings that were installed in the Veterans Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.