Written By Elaine Bean
As formerly published in The Courier.
Kevin and Evan Fitzgerald are father and son. Both are painters. Both reside in Berlin. And both share a studio in an old warehouse in Newark. But on first glance, their art seems to inhabit different worlds of thought.
Kevin paints large, dreamy landscapes that make one recall the feeling of land and the experience of entering it. “Kevin Fitzgerald’s painting take the time that we don’t allow ourselves,” Deborah McLeod, director of Chromas Projects in Charlottsville, Va. wrote. “They do the hard work of patience, stillness, and quietude for us.”
Evan Fitzgerald paints figuratively, showing people wearing elaborate headdresses made from various animals and flowers. Evan said, “The people I am depicting have adorned themselves with so many things that much of their face and even their vision has been obscured by the persona they are aiming to embody.”
These two strongly individualistic artists have combined their talents into one art exhibition during August at the Ocean City Center for the Arts. Entitled “Lasting Legacies,” the show displays several works where the artists painted on the same canvas as well as individual pieces. This exhibition hosted by the Art League of Ocean City is the first time father and son have collaborated on paintings as well as the first time they have exhibited together.
While their artistic approach could not seem more diverse, they are very similar in aim. Both are concerned with exploring the earliest phases of humans’ reactions to the world around them – the first emotional reactions felt in a dawning landscape; the earliest awareness of adornment in the creation of personae. These early sensibilities are with everyone, and both painters – in their own way – are exploring the connection.
The concept of legacy is important to both Kevin and Evan, and they named their show “Lasting Legacies” to not only emphasize their own connection as father and son and the intentional passing of the torch, but also as a honor to the previous generations of Fitzgerald’s who were artists.
Represented in the show are artworks from a family legacy of artistic talent and productivity that goes back more than 100 years. John R. Fitzgerald, 
Kevin’s grandfather and Evan’s great-grandfather, was the first on an artistic path, graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1910. Kevin’s mother and Evan’s grandmother, Frances Jeanette Fitzgerald, attended the Corcoran School of Art and Design and was also a painter. Kevin and Evan both attended the Maryland Institute and went on to receive master’s degrees from prestigious institutions.
Kevin’s paintings are “living, breathing capturings of place … [they] are very old souls with knowledge to impart,” according to McLeod. “They are imaginings of the slow way that nature experiences itself, without human intrusion.”
Evan’s work is heavily influenced by the Eastern Shore of Maryland, depicting animals that are found locally. “For me, it is important for art to communicate something about the time and place that it was made,” he said. “I will always have elements of the Shore in my work partly for that reason.”
The Fitzgerald exhibition runs through August 31, 2024 at the Ocean City Center for the Arts, 502 94th St. bayside. www.OCart.org