The Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center, in a historic collaboration with Corning’s West End Gallery, is proud to present “Big Gems,” a spectacular 11-artist invitational exhibition running from July 18 through August 9, 2026. This landmark event marks a profound, full-circle homecoming for internationally recognized landscape painter GC Myers, who will be the featured artist in the Gmeiner’s Atrium Gallery with his show “A Seedling Returns.” While Myers has achieved over 70 solo gallery exhibitions worldwide, his entire professional trajectory traces directly back to a pivotal moment on the Gmeiner stage over three decades ago. In his moving reflection on the exhibition, titled The Blessing is in the Seed, Myers credits the Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center with providing the vital nourishment that launched his career. After first showing his work publicly at the West End Gallery in February 1995, a then-unknown Myers decided to enter a well-known regional art competition at the Gmeiner in the summer of 1995. Entering a piece titled The Sky Doesn’t Pity, Myers expected nothing, but to his shock, he won one of the show’s top honors. Myers recalls that it might have only been a third-place award, but it felt like Olympic gold because having someone see something in his work made him feel seen and heard in an unexpected way.
The Gmeiner’s impact on Myers deepened during a period of profound personal tragedy. Following his mother’s painful battle with metastatic cancer and subsequent passing in November 1995, Myers channeled his grief into a raw, deeply personal series of faces titled Exiles. Needing a clean, open space to share these non-commercial expressions of grief, Myers courageously pitched a solo exhibition proposal to the Gmeiner’s director. In January 1997, the Gmeiner hosted Myers’ very first solo gallery show. Myers notes that the first solo show in Wellsboro may well be the most important for me up to this point, and he feels a deep sense of gratitude for the nourishment provided when he was but a seedling, adding that without that first award and first show, he does not know in what manner he might have grown, if at all. Now, 29 years after that milestone solo debut, Myers returns to the very walls that catalyzed his career.
The “Big Gems” exhibition expands upon the framework of the highly popular annual West End Gallery Little Gems Exhibit, scaling up to showcase a dynamic combination of large-format masterpieces and small-scale works. The star-studded exhibition lineup bridges the regional art scenes of the New York Finger Lakes and Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier. To create a cohesive experience for traveling collectors, artists Richell Castellón and Brian M. Hart will be concurrently featured in spotlights back at the West End Gallery in Corning during the run. The complete “Big Gems” roster includes Richell Castellón, Tom Gardner, Brian M. Hart, Amy Hutto, Ileen Kaplan, Brian S. Keeler, GC Myers, Wilson Ong, the late Martin A. Poole, Judy Soprano, and Treacy Ziegler.
The public is invited to celebrate the exhibition’s grand opening during the formal Opening Reception on Saturday, July 25, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Hosted by the Friends of the Library, the event will feature light refreshments alongside a unique opportunity to meet the artists and welcome GC Myers home. A major highlight of the reception will be a live oil painting demonstration by acclaimed master Brian S. Keeler, running concurrently from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Keeler, who has been represented by the West End Gallery for more than 30 years, was chosen because of his deep dual ties to both states, maintaining active studios in both New York and Pennsylvania. Keeler will paint a live Pennsylvania landscape right inside the gallery.