Dyer Arts Center celebrates William ‘Lee’ Hoag

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A retrospective of artist William “Lee” Hoag’s work, along with 11 new pieces, is on display at NTID’s Dyer Arts Center through Nov. 18. This piece, What a Blast, is permanently housed at NTID.

The 25th anniversary of William “Lee” Hoag’s first art show is being celebrated this fall with a new show in the Ohringer Gallery of the Dyer Arts Center at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf through Nov. 18. “HOAG/25 Years” is a collection of works spanning the last 25 years, across multiple media, along with 11 new pieces. An artist’s reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in the gallery.

Hoag’s first exhibit, “ELEVEN: Recent Mixed-Media Sculptures from Bill Hoag,” debuted in 1992 in what was the White Room Gallery at the downtown Rochester nightclub Carpe Diem. Today, it’s the location of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

Hoag is the son of Ralph Hoag, who worked in the U.S. Department of Education under former presidents Kennedy and Johnson and played an instrumental role in the establishment of NTID. The elder Hoag was also a former superintendent of the Rochester School for the Deaf.

William “Lee” Hoag, who lives and works in Rochester, is a 1992 graduate of RIT’s Master of Science for Teachers in visual arts-all grades (art education) program and recently retired after a long career as a sign-language interpreter. He was formerly artist-in-residence at Freiluftgalerie Stotteritz in Germany and his artwork has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout Rochester and the region. He lectures locally and has been featured in several publications including City Newspaper, Lake Effect Magazine, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and Chenango Valley News. He has also had commissioned artwork displayed at Highland Park and Village Gate Square and he has won several grants and awards for his pieces.

“My first passion is art making, and when my proposed 25-year, multimedia retrospective exhibition was accepted by Tabitha Jacques, director of the Dyer Arts Center, I was ecstatic to say the least, given what it means to me not only as an alumnus, but mostly for my late father’s legacy and life’s work in deaf education,” said Hoag. “Both of my parents wholeheartedly supported my pursuit of art and being an artist. This important career exhibition at this time in my life at the Ohringer Gallery at the RIT/NTID Dyer Arts Center is truly special indeed.”

The gallery is located in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall, RIT/NTID, 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester. For more information, go to the RIT National Technical Institute for the Deaf website.