The 54th Annual Faculty Exhibition is underway in the University Gallery through April 11 at East Central University.
It will be the final faculty show in the current gallery at the east entrance of the Education Building, since the Art Department will move to the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center when it is completed.
The exhibit is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and admission is free. A reception for the artists will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. April 7 [MONDAY] in the gallery.
The exhibition features work from each faculty member to demonstrate their expertise and new concepts for their students. This year the faculty has been busy exhibiting throughout the region and continues to dominate juried exhibitions within the state, said Dr. Brad Jessop, chair of the Art Department.
"Several of the artists are working with themes of identity, consumption and policies that have broad-based impact on our lives and the artist's experiences with them," Jessop said.
Jessop will exhibit a new series of collages, watercolors and paintings that take a critical view of social norms and contradictions with them.
"Principally, the work is about the postmodern condition," he said. "In this series of collages I examine the roles currently thrust upon us by the media, outside forces and politicians, and visually contrast those roles with my own perceptions and choices."
Kate Rivers, who has been very active in exhibitions this spring, will exhibit paintings and monotypes that investigate socially invested imagery that relate to historical artworks. Her paintings explore juxtapositions of consumption, body and culture, while her monotypes are explorations of identity.
Aaron Hauck's current work consists of digital collages using images appropriated from the internet and small sculptures made with found objects.
"The work is intended to be a commentary, not an attack, on our current American culture," Hauck said. "Our culture is becoming more and more commercially driven and we are grasped in its stranglehold. As much as I dislike it, I am its product."
Other faculty exhibiting works are Wayneath Weddle, an adjunct instructor who is exhibiting a new series of pots. The pots have art nouveau forms coupled with fast fire techniques.
Bill Roach is exhibiting a continuing series of jewelry, demonstrating his deft skills in fabrication and metal cutting, with works that flow organically and either embrace or duplicate the biological world.
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