BOSTON, MA.- The Boston Athenæum presents “PAINTER + POET: George Nama and Charles Simic” Feb. 10 through April 10, 2010, in the Athenæum’s Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery, located at 10 ½ Beacon Street on Beacon Hill near the State House. This new exhibition, the result of a collaboration that began several years ago between the two artists, features a selection of Nama’s recent etchings, sculptures, gouaches, and artist’s books that have been inspired by and give visual illumination to Simic’s poetry. It is curated by David Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture. George Nama is a New York artist who specializes in expressive abstracted figures, rendered in a variety of media, that interpret the works of major writers such as Simic, Yves Bonnefoy, and Alfred Brendel. His first one-artist