Main Gallery
June 19 – July 31
& September 4 – 16, 2007
KINGSTON, RI — The Main Gallery of the Fine Arts Center Galleries at the University of Rhode Island becomes the site of an eclectic grouping of works by fourteen contributing faculty members, Department of Art, University of Rhode Island.
The Fine Arts Center Galleries’ Corridor space serves regularly to showcase ongoing projects by many of these same artists, along with those of invited regional invited guests. This opportunity has allowed audiences to develop and maintain a familiarity with the many of the teaching artists contributing to the Faculty Exhibition. But several works showcased in the upcoming exhibition are also three-dimensional or simply on a scale that the Corridor Gallery, designed for solo exhibitions for works on paper, relief, and other two-dimensional techniques, cannot justly accommodate.
The Main Gallery exhibition will contain works by visiting faculty Jerry Mischak and Blue Wade, two teaching artists new to the University, adjunct faculty Jeff Bertwell, Brian O’Malley, Kim Salerno, Lilla Samson and Zoey Stites, who have been teaching part time at the University of Rhode Island for several years, as well as works by permanent long term faculty including William Klenk, Barbara Pagh and Gary Richman and who have generated many devoted students over time.
Contributors to this Faculty Exhibition have received their training from across the U.S. The fourteen artists are:
• Ben Anderson (MFA, Visual Arts, University of California at San Diego; BFA, Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design);
•Jeffrey Bertwell (TTC, Printmaking, Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico; BFA, University of Rhode Island);
•Bob Dilworth (MFA, Painting, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; BFA, Rhode Island School of Design);
•Ron Hutt (MFA, Art and Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; MA, Expressive Therapies, University of Louisville; BA, Art Studio, Painting and Drawing, University of Kentucky);
•William Klenk (PhD, Drawing/Painting, Ohio State University; MA, Ohio State University; BFA, Miami University);
•Annu Palakunnathu Matthew (MFA, Photography, University of Delaware; BS, Women’s Christian College, India);
•Jerry Mischak (MFA, Painting, University of Wisconsin-Madison; BFA, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design);
•Brian O’Malley (MFA, Painting, University of Miami; Post-Baccalaureate, Film Studies, Massachusetts College of Art; BFA, Painting and Drawing, University of Rhode Island);
•Barbara Pagh (MA, Printmaking, New York University; BA, Mount Holyoke College);
•Gary Richman (MFA, Printmaking, Indiana University; BA, Brooklyn College);
•Kim Salerno (MArch, Architecture, University of Pennsylvania; Cert., Painting, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; BA, Studio Art, Smith College);
•Lilla Samson (Painting/Printmaking, Rhode Island School of Design; MFA, Printmaking, Syracuse University; BFA, University of Rhode Island);
•Zoey Stites (MFA, Photography, University of South Florida; BFA, Photography & BS, Resource Development and Urban Affairs, University of Rhode Island) and
•Blue Wade (MFA, Digital and Media, Rhode Island School of Design; BA, Practice of Art and Interdisciplinary Field Studies, University of California at Berkeley).
The exhibition showcases artists’ expertise in traditional media including watercolor, pastel, graphite and pen, oil painting, photography, and wood sculpture, to significantly more experimental forms including cut paper drawing and duct tape sculpture.
Several faculty members work on or with paper for dramatic drawing and/or printmaking (Jeffrey Bertwell, Bob Dilworth, Barbara Pagh, Lilla Samson and Kim Salerno) or they collage outright (William Klenk and Gary Richman).
Form and content combine surprisingly throughout the exhibition in various issue-oriented works. In two separate installations within the exhibition, Kim Salerno’s feminist, exceptionally mixed media pieces manipulate sheet plastic, fabric, wallpaper, fake fur and more, while Bob Dilworth’s film noir derived black paper cutouts combine with black tape, translucent and clear film.
Other artists, such as Ben Anderson, privilege the traditional sculptural materials wood and stone, in contrast to the mixed-media combination of Blue Wade in her figurative, electrified plaster work, or Jerry Mischak’s sculptural collage that is bound by variously colored duct tapes.
Elsewhere, photography in sepia tones pointedly resurrecting 19th century exemplars to explore “native” identity by Annu Palakunnathu Matthew contrast to the overtly digital, commanding, fisheye text statements of Zoey Stites.
The virtual, floating, outer space imagery of Ron Hutt is transformed through silkscreening on a hollow core door, whereas Brian O’Malley apocalyptic oil painting portrays a frontal, frighteningly gas masked head, very much of this earth.
Visitors will discover for themselves and undoubtedly debate many highly individualized art/cultural musings presented throughout this lively group exhibition.
PROGRAMMING
Closing remarks and Main Gallery public reception
September 11th, 4 pm
SUMMER GALLERY HOURS
Monday-Friday 12 noon- 4:00 pm & Saturday/Sunday 1:00-4:00 pm
FALL GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday-Friday 12 noon- 4:00 pm & Saturday/Sunday 1:00- 4:00 pm
The Galleries are closed on federal and state holidays.
All programs of The Fine Arts Center Galleries are open to the public without charge
& all are handicapped accessible.
Images above:
Kim Salerno