Alumnus hired at Portland Art Museum

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Mike Murawski teaching in the St. Louis Art Museum

Heartiest congratulations to Art Department alumnus Dr. Mike Murawski (BA Art History 1999) who has just beed hired as the Director of Education & Public Programs at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon.  Since graduating from Truman, Dr. Murawski earned a PhD in Education from American University in Washington D.C. and returned to the St. Louis area for positions first at the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum at Washington University and then was hired as Director of School Services at the St. Louis Art Museum.  While at SLAM, Dr. Murawski developed a popular Museum Education internship, in which a number Truman Art History majors have participated;  in addition, Truman students have been often hosted at SLAM by Dr. Murawski, and have benefitted from campus lectures by both him and his wife, Prof. Bryna Campbell who is a PhD candidate in Art History at Washington University in St. Louis working on early twentieth-century American art.  We will miss having Mike, Bryna, and their family so close by but send them all good wishes as they make this exciting move!

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Prof. Derezinski show!

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Congratulations to Prof. Matt Derezinski (Visual Communication) who will have a solo show at Kishwaukee College in Malta, Illinois.  The exhibition will be called "thoughts of perception" and will include the two works pictured here ("Hidden Garden" above, and "Choices 2" below).  Congratulations!

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Prof. Xu’s summer

Yu Garden

We identified some of the faculty summer activities in a recent post, but will be highlighting some in the coming weeks.  Here is some great information from Prof. Ping Xu (Visual Communication) about his summer!

"After my visiting designer trip to University of Texas at Arlington and my solo show at University of Texas–Arlington in April, I visited Truman's sister school, Shanghai University during my home trip to Shanghai, and met with Viscomm Prof. Du Shiying of SU's Fine Art College. We had a nice conversation about the upcoming event, the Cross Connections 2012 International Design Exhibition, and a possible summer school student exchange program. In addition, I curate and keep contacts with China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, and Sint-Lucas Ghent Belgium".

Stay tuned here for more information about "Cross Connections 2012", which will feature international graphic design from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (China), Luxun Academy of Fine Arts (China), the National School of Fine Arts (Mexico), Shanghai University (China), Sint-Lucas Ghent (Belgium), and The University of Texas – Arlington, The University of Texas – Pan American, and Truman State University, all of which are in the States.

Prof. Xu also kindly shared with us the pictures of Shanghai which appear with this post.

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Student Clubs Get Started

The Art Department hosts a wide variety of clubs for students interested in various areas relevant to the Department.  Most of those clubs are in the process now of getting started and seeking new members.

For example, Truman's student chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) is holding a barbecue this coming Thursday for any students interested in joining AIGA. The barbecue will be held on Thursday, September 6 at 6:00 p.m. on the Quad side of Ophelia Parrish.

And Art History Society (AHS), the club for any students interested in Art History, has already had their first meeting and is getting ready to unveil a new format for their long-standing service of hosting study sessions for students in any Art History class.  AHS meets weekly this semester on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. in OP 2111 and can be reached by e-mail at ahstruman@gmail.com.

The Art Department also hosts the following clubs for the following areas:  The Bad Acids (printmaking);  Clay People (ceramics);  Fibers Club (fibers);  and Kappa Pi (national honorary art organization).  Stay tuned for more information about those clubs, or contact the Art Department at art@truman.edu with questions.

Gallery talk and opening tonight

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Image Credit:  Lampo Leung

Tonight, two great new exhibitions open the University Art Gallery's 2012-2013 season.  In the main gallery will be a retrospective exhibition of work by Lampo Leung. Prof. Leung is the Maxwell C. Weiner Distinguished Professor, Missouri University of Science &Technology in Rolla, Missouri, and Professor of Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia.  In addition, he serves as Honorary Visiting Professor at the South China Normal University, Honorary Master Painter at the  Guangzhou Painting Academy, and Honorary Visiting Professor, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, all in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.  Prof. Leung will also give a public talk about his work on Tuesday, September 4 at 5:30 p.m. in OP 2210.  For more information about Prof. Leung's work, please visit his website.

Also opening in the Spotlight Gallery is an exhbition of fibers work by Visiting Professor (and Truman alumna) Kelsey Wiskirchen.  For more information about and images of Prof. Wiskirchen's work, please read our previous blog post or visit her own blog.

An opening reception for both exhibitions will be held tonight, Tuesday, September 4th, at 6:30 p.m. in the University Art Gallery (OP 1114).  Hope to see you there!

To stay up-to-date on Gallery goings-on, remember to check out the Gallery's own blog as well as this one.

Monotype Printing in the Fibers Studio

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Fibers 1 Students Monoprinting

The semester is off to a great start in the Art
Studios!  Students in Fibers 1 spent
their first week learning Monotype Printing on cotton fabric.  First applying textile ink to a sheet of Plexiglas,
they then created layers of color and texture by pressing the ink directly onto
the surface of the fabric. 

 

In the next couple of weeks, students will be learning how
to screen print and dye fabric and will design patterned yardages.  Other techniques covered in Fibers 1 this
semester will include traditional and contemporary basketry techniques and
sewing three-dimensional forms.  Stay
tuned for more updates from the Fibers Studio!