By GALEN HAWES
ADA – East Central University’s Art + Design : Media + Communication department presents its 66th annual faculty art exhibit from now through November 13. The 2020 exhibit takes place at the Pogue Gallery inside the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center.
To comply with Covid-19 safety protocols, masks and social distancing are required for the event. Only four visitors will be allowed inside the gallery to view the artwork at any given time.
Historically, the annual faculty art exhibit is a means by which instructors may demonstrate their expertise for the students, colleagues and the community as a whole. The faculty’s art exhibits also exist as a challenge to ECU art students, whose exhibits follow in the spring.
Among this year’s exhibitors is Anne Yoncha, the newest member of the Arts faculty. Her works were produced during her Fulbright Fellowship in Finland last year and are an artistic interpretation of ongoing scientific research regarding peat bogs.
“Each drawing layers 20 images of Sphagnum moss from a conserved peatland site,” Yoncha said. “Each drawing works only the negative space in each layer – not depicting the organism itself, but the space around it. This hyaline cell structure – microscopic empty spaces in each leaf of the plant – enables it to act like a sponge, absorbing 20 times its weight in water, creating the waterlogged peatland ecosystem as we see it today.”
The 2020 faculty exhibit also features two sculptures by Christyn Overstake, which combine cast metals and welded steel; two photographs that are archival inkjet prints from 35mm film by Sarah Engel; two watercolors by J.P. Rhea; a sound sculpture by Mike Maxwell; and a collage and two paintings by Brad Jessop.
The Pogue Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. and admission to the faculty art exhibit is free.
-ECU-