Ceramics Instructor Eric Ordway is Visiting Artist at College of the Ozarks

Truman’s Ceramicist Eric Ordway recently visited the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO (just south of Branson). The campus is currently closed to visitors but Dr. Richard Cummings and Professor Michael Ashley found a way for him to still come down and demonstrate his practice to the students.

He writes: “One of the moments that I really enjoy (besides getting to dialogue with their amazing ceramic students) was when I got to see my work installed and lighted in the studio space for the first time. I have been living with this work in my basement and my garage for the last year and it had started to feel under whelming… But when the work was displayed, lighted and given space to breath, it felt like I was able to see the pieces with new eyes. It gave me a sense of pride and confidence to continue making and continue to share my process and my vessels with the wider world.”

Congratulations to Eric Ordway for his beautiful work and impressive show. We are pleased you had a chance to share your work with a new audience!

Alumna Nala Turner Featured in All The Art

Nala Turner, whose 2018 BFA ceramics show consisted of a series of very large vessels inspired by important women in her life, is interviewed in the spring 2019 issue of All The Art, the Visual Art Quarterly of St. Louis.  In addition to the two-page spread on pages 16 and 17, Nala’s work is featured on both the front and back covers.

Nala Turner now attends Pratt Institute in New York City, where she is doing well.  For more information, take a look at her article.  Congratulations on your recognition, Nala!  We are really proud of you!

New Gallery Shows Opening This Week

We have three great exhibitions opening in the University Art Gallery this week.

Retrospective: Wynne Wilbur – in the Main Gallery

Wynne Wilbur, Flower (2017).  Image courtesy of the artist.

View a career-spanning retrospective of work created by Truman ceramics professor Wynne Wilbur.

Emily Nickel, Undoing. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Dreamwork: New Work by ceramicists Leah Bowring, Emily Nickel, and Alexander Thierry – in the Main Gallery

Dreamwork features three ceramic artists, Truman alumni all, who encompass a broad range of approaches to ceramics: Leah BowringEmily NickelAlexander Thierry. Dreamwork refers to the psychoanalytic concept that our unconscious often disguises truths in our dreams from our conscious mind, but, more broadly, the works in this exhibition address the work the mind undertakes when creating memories, fantasizing, meditating, and dreaming.

Harry Tjutjuna, Wati Nyiru Munu Wati Wanka. Photo courtesy of the University of Virginia.

Claiming Country: Western Desert Painting from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection – in the Charlyn Gallery (Exhibition on view until March 22).The Western Desert, located in west central Australia, is home to many of Australia’s indigenous communities and is seen as the birthplace of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. Indigenous Australian art is often based on Dreamings, called Tjukurrpa in the Western Desert region. Dreamings link Aboriginal peoples to their sacred lands, often referred to as Country, through narratives of ancestors and creator beings. Western Desert artists bridge the gap between traditional Aboriginal practices and the contemporary art world by expressing Tjukurrpa in their work through ceremonial iconography and aerial perspectives of sacred landscapes associated with creator beings and ancestors. The paintings in Claiming Country explore the essential role that Country plays in the identities of Indigenous Australians. This exhibition brings together paintings by prominent Western Desert artists Pansy Napangardi, Makinti Napanangka, Weaver Jack, Harry Tjutjuna, Kathleen Petyarre, Tjumpo Tjapanangka, and Paddy Japaljarri Sims.

These works have graciously been loaned to Truman State University from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, the only museum outside of Australia dedicated to the exhibition and study of Indigenous Australian art.

Opening reception for all three of these exhibitions will take place Friday, January 25, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

 

Wynne Wilbur is a Resident Artist in Montana

Professor Wynne Wilbur spent time this summer in a short term artist residency at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana. While there she worked on porcelain, returning to a material she has focused on during her sabbatical in China and since.

While at Red Lodge, Professor Wilbur was one of five Artist-Invites-Artist residents.  Pictured below are Stephanie Craig (Ohio), Chanda Zea (Oregon), Professor Wilbur, Kyung Hwa Oh (Colorado), and Todd Leech (Ohio) horizontal!

BFA Studio Students Present Their Capstone Exhibitions

Friday the 4th of May is the last day of classes.  Come out and celebrate with senior studio art majors as they host the reception for their exhibitions.  The shows will be up in the University Art Gallery from Monday, April 30th, to Friday, and the concluding reception is Friday, 6 pm, in the Gallery.

Capstone Exhibits and Reception for the BA in Studio Art

Friday at 6 pm come and join the graduating BA students to celebrate their capstone exhibition, which is on display in the University Gallery until that evening. Help us congratulate the students on completion of their degree (and enjoy some lovely snacks while you do)!

What Will Hannah Nicks Do After Graduation?

Hannah Nicks, who will graduate in December with a BA double major in Art History and Studio (Ceramics Concentration), sends us the following exciting news about what she will be doing after walking across the stage to receive her diploma:

Following my December graduation, I will begin an Art Residency at Access Arts in Columbia, Missouri. At Access Arts I will be teaching two classes, Adaptive Clay Handbuilding for adults and children with special needs, and Handbuilding & Altered Forms for more advanced students. During the residency, I plan to make a body of work that I can use to apply to a graduate program for ceramics. Along with the creation of this body of work I have a number of art shows around the midwest that I am going to apply for in order to gain exhibition experience.

Congratulations to Hannah and our other graduates!

Here are a few of Hannah’s recent works for you to admire.

BA students present work in gallery

Students completing their degrees with the BA: Liberal Arts major took over the University Gallery last week to show their work in their capstone classes.  The students whose art was featured were Olivia Brady (printmaking), Akari Kinjo (fibers/sculpture), Sabrina Lavezzi (printmaking), Hannah Nicks (ceramics), Morgan Price (ceramics), and Allyson Uhles (ceramics).  The reception to celebrate their exhibition was held on the Friday of their week in the gallery.  These pictures show some of the work and visitors enjoying the shows.

Kimono by Akari Kinjo.

Hannah Nicks’s plates on a painted wall made the ceramic work into an elaborate design of which they were only a part.

Continue reading