Author: Art Department

Posted on by Art Department News and Events

I, too, am America — round table discussion

On October 27, Mona Lee and Zoe Abbey, visited Truman State University Art Gallery to discuss their contributions to the current exhibition I, too, am America: Photographs by Kansas City Fast Food Workers, on view in the side gallery until Thursday December 1.
The two artists, who have both been employed in the fast food industry for many years, are actively involved in Stand Up KC (http://standupkc.org), an organization set up to give fast-food and retail workers a voice to speak for better working conditions, higher wages, and a union. Through their work with Stand Up KC, Lee and Abbey were drawn into the Langston Hughes Club and collaborated on this photography project with photojournalist Steve Hebert. The aim of the project was to document—from their own perspective—the conditions in which low-income workers live and work.
Both Lee and Abbey talked discussed how their and their fellow workers’ financial, personal, and social difficulties were expressed in the everyday scenes captured in this exhibition, showing among other things bare rooms, empty refrigerators, and bathtubs full of laundry. The interactive and personal discussion provided an invaluable inside perspective, showcasing exactly why the exhibition I, too, am America has caught the attention of media nationwide (http://nyti.ms/1GDn5Ld).
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Mona Lee and Zoe Abbey, who contributed to the I, too, am America exhibition, pictured with Gallery Director Heidi Cook

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Fact or Fiction

(Featuring artists Brandon Anschultz, Michael Behle, and Greg Edmondson)

The second set of fall exhibition at the Truman State University Art Gallery, Ophelia Parrish 1114 are coming to a close on Friday December 2. Fact or Fiction features new work by three Saint Louis-based artists: Brandon Anschultz, Michael Behle, and Greg Edmondson.

The works of these three artists collaboratively come together to address questions concerning artistic media, patternistic logic, material reality, color, and the illusionary.

Brandon Anschultz’s works featured in the exhibition fog the border of painting and sculpture. Utilizing the paint as a physically sculptural medium, he challenges the tradition of painting and explores the effect of color on the human eye. The pieces are created to stimulate curiosity in the viewer to explore the unknown and the ambiguous. His works are inspired by elements of narratives, art historical movements like Minimalism and Constructivism, Queer culture, and personal history.

Michael Behle’s paintings on photographs question the material reality, illusionary, and the representational in art. Iconographic elements exist alongside a fascination with the human experience. His sculptural works and mix-media photographs draw a psychological reaction from the viewer, exploring common themes and narratives.

Greg Edmondson uses his art to explore the ideas of organic growth and informational coding systems. His pieces emphasize pattern and artistic technique. Edmondson’s pieces see through the process of exchanging and organizing information. He utilizes the imagination to create art and cement the importance of the scientific, in the seemly separate, but all-to-connected world of art.

Posted on by Art Department Department, Faculty Scholarship and Creative Work, News and Events, Uncategorized

#15 for Art

The Art Department’s series of short faculty presentations — 15 minutes, one professor, one work of art — continues this Thursday, October 17th, with Professor Matthew Derezinski, who teaches in the Design (formerly “Visual Communications”) program. Matt’s talk will begin at 4:45 pm in the University Gallery.

The mini lecture series was featured several weeks ago on Truman’s media network.  Talks will continue into the spring semester, with a different faculty member featured every two weeks.

Posted on by Art Department Department, News and Events, Uncategorized

Kirksville High School Students Job Shadow in the Art Department

Kirksville High School seniors in a personal finance class were challenged to shadow someone who does a job they are interested in.  Two high school seniors shadowed Art faculty members on Wednesday, October 26. They were able to talk with faculty, sit in on classes, and visit the University Art Gallery.  We really loved having them on campus and in Ophelia Parrish and wish them all the best as they finish up their senior year!

Kirksville High School student Mikaila Battrick (center) with Professors Heidi Cool (left) and Julia DeLancey (right).

Kirksville High School student Mikaila Battrick (center) with Professors Heidi Cool (left) and Julia DeLancey.

 

Anyone interested in setting up a job shadowing opportunity in the Department of Art should please e-mail art@truman.edu.  We enjoy having visitors who are interested in our Art program.

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Tomb Wall on Display in OP Atrium

Dr. Orel’s Egyptian Art class has installed a full-size copy of the wall from a tomb at Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt.  The tomb dates from about 4000 years ago, and belonged to a provincial governor.  The artwork was recorded by English Egyptologists in the late 1880s, and was published at a small scale.  Fine Arts Design took the line drawing and blew it up again to the real size so students can experience the art at its original scale rather than shrunk down to fit in a publication.  The “wall” will be on display until Friday afternoon, September 11th.img_9889

Posted on by Art Department Faculty Scholarship and Creative Work, Uncategorized

Faculty Show and Exhibit Beyond Truman

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Natural Domestic, the exhibit by the Crescent Collective (including Truman Professor Laura Bigger), is on display in Minneapolis this month.

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Truman State printmaking professor Laura Bigger and her two collaborators, Teréz Iacovino (on the left, an artist), and Artemis Ettsen (in the middle, an architect), currently have a solo exhibition in Minneapolis.  The trio collectively is known as the Crescent Collective.   with my collaborative trio Crescent Collective. The show is called Natural Domestic and is housed at Form + Content gallery.  Laura tells us “This work is distinct from my independent work although it thematically overlaps very closely.”

 

Temporary Assistant Professor of Photography Amanda Breitbach has curated an art exhibit in St Louis at Webster University’s Gateway Campus.  “Rendered Visible” is her contribution to the Arcade Comtemporary Art Projects is an exhibition of photographs that address the topic of American incarceration and the justice system.

Posted on by Art Department Department, Faculty Scholarship and Creative Work, Public Art, Uncategorized

Painting professor Lindsey Dunnagan to speak at “#15 for Art” on Thursday, October 20th

New Assistant Professor of Painting, Lindsey Dunnagan, is giving this week’s “#15 for Art” talk.  Come to the University Gallery on Thursday October 20th at 4:45 pm.  These images may give you a sense of her work, but come and see what she talks about on Thursday afternoon.

Professor Dunnagan has a major art series which just had its first public exhibit this past summer. Her The Journey Home Project was featured at Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art in Dallas, TX, from late July to late August, 2016.  She describes the process of creation and the work itself:the-journey-home-project

For the past year, I collected locations from people in North Texas and beyond, including various student groups and a refugee center in Dallas. Now their names and “ideas of home” have been painted onto a large-scale installation that forms a labyrinth.

As visitors walk through the painted translucent walls, they may find a location that holds significance to them while also experiencing other places that are cherished. In this way, the project presents the world as a treasure and a place to discover; it intimates a deep connection we have with each other and the planet.

Lindsey Dunnagan, The Journey Home Project, on display in Dallas, August 2016.

In addition, Lindsey Dunnagan installed a large commissioned work in Fort Worth, TX, at Store #532 of the Kroger Company.  Native Treasures is painted and drawn with watercolor, ink, salt, and acrylic on Clear Acrylic.  You can see it in Fort Worth at 5241 N Tarrant Parkway.

nativetreasures-by-lindsey-dunnaganNative Treasures, 2016, installed in Kroger store #532.

All photographs courtesy of Lindsey Dunnagan.

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New Exhibition in University Gallery

We have two fabulous exhibitions opening on Tuesday, October 18. A public reception will be held 5-6 p.m.

Fact or Fiction, which is installed in the main gallery, presents contemporary artworks by three St. Louis-based artists, Brandon Anschultz, Michael Behle, and Greg Edmondson. Each experiments with the formal elements of their artworks to test the ambiguous boundaries between the illusionistic representations of reality and the abstract materiality of artistic media. In other words, their works inhabit the space between fact and fiction. The exhibition includes an exciting spectrum of media including: drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and new uses of traditional materials.

fact-or-fiction

I, too, am America, a collection of photographs taken by fast food workers in the Kansas City Area, is in the side gallery. Originally shown last May in Kansas City, this exhibition received national media attention for capturing the everyday occurrences, the working conditions, and the common struggles of urban low-income workers as captured from their own perspective. The photographs explore major issues that our contemporary society faces including income inequality, race and gender discrimination, workers’ rights, and the working poor.