COLLEGEVILLE, PA.-An exhibition of the art of local artist G. Noble Wagner will open Sept. 18 at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. Purity of Surface: Sculpture & Prints by G. Noble Wagner (1907 -1987) will run through Dec. 21 in the Main Gallery. A gallery talk is scheduled Sept. 20 at 6:30 p.m. The Berman Museum Director, Lisa Tremper Hanover, will give the talk. An opening reception will be held Sept. 23 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Wagner was a co-founder of the Cheltenham ( Pa. ) Art Center , and is noted for her use of a concise, direct and powerful artistic vocabulary largely in aluminum and stainless steel, constructed around basic geometric shapes and forms. Her two-dimensional surfaces are silk-screened with vibrant, often dissonant, colors that play against the aluminum or stainless surface.

Affiliated with the Minimalism movement, Wagner was a force in the Philadelphia and New York art scene challenging the field with her use of materials, scale, and installation techniques. Her sculpture, The Oval, graces the Ursinus College campus and was donated by her five children including Ursinus alumna Susan Wagner Lubking 1960. A large collection of Wagner’s artistic oeuvre will join the permanent collection as a significant resource for the study and interpretation of her work.

The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus, known for its diverse collection and innovative educational programming, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; noon to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, and closed Mondays and college holidays. The museum is accessible to the physically disabled and admission is free. The museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Exhibitions and programs are funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For group tour information, call 610-409-3500.

Ursinus College is a highly selective, independent coeducational liberal arts college located on a scenic, wooded 170-acre campus, 28 miles from Center City Philadelphia. The college is one of only 8 percent of U.S. Colleges to possess a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Its web site is located at . The College is located on Main Street in Collegeville.