Finals Week ends on Friday, December 12 with December graduation taking place on Saturday, December 13th. Congratulations to all Art Department (and Truman) graduates! Please stay in touch (art@truman.edu).
This also means that the Art Department blog will be taking a break until the week before classes start in January. However, during that time the blog will feature faculty artwork (and other images) related to winter themes so do check back often!
For now, greetings of the season to all!
On Tuesday, November 4 at 6:00 p.m., the University Art Gallery will host a public discussion entitled “Perspectives on Food”. This event is open to all members of the campus, Kirksville, and other communities in order to discuss the topics that inspired this exhibition.
As blog readers will know, this exhibition is part of a larger gallery program known as “Food and Conservation in the Heartland” and utilizes contemporary art to engage with themes pertaining to the food supply of rural Missouri residents. “Hunter/Gatherer” seeks to transcend political divisions in order to provoke discussions around the issues of where our food comes from, its production, the ways it connects us to our environment, and what accounts for food insecurity. Some of the themes being touched on include hunger, food safety, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and hunting.It is one of the most uniquely engaging exhibits the gallery has shown to date.and features extensive educational programming, free transportation, and guided tours for schools, churches, and other groups
For questions, or to request a group tour of the exhibition, please contact University Art Gallery Director, Prof. Aaron Fine at (660)785.5386 or at afine@truman.edu.
We hope to see you there!
Prof. Matt Derezinski (Visual Communications) let us know about a lot of the great things he’s been up to this year: 35 exhibits, 13 awards and 3 publications. Over the summer, he photographed the Boy Scouts of America Heart of America Council, the first ever “Scouting 500” that took place at the Kansas City Speedway. He also had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Gill Clay, the granddaughter of Scouting’s founder, Lord Robert Baden Powell. For more on what Prof. Derezinski has been up to, please visit his website: http://mderezinski.wordpress.com/
Congratulations, Matt!
Three Art Department faculty members serve as Councilors for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). CUR’s mission is “…to support and promote high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship”. Dr. Sara Orel (Art History) was elected as Chair of the Arts and Humanities Division and also serves on the Executive Board. This year, Prof. Wynne Wilbur (Studio) and Dr. Julia DeLancey (Art History) were elected to serve as Councilors in the Arts and Humanities Division. In those roles, all three faculty members also attended the annual meeting this past summer in Washington D.C. Truman State University faculty are very active in CUR: one hundred twenty four (124) are members of CUR and many serve in leadership positions such as Division Chair or as heads of task forces such as Internationalization. Stay tuned for more information about Art Department presentations at CUR as well!
The Faculty Art Exhibition will open the University Art Gallery’s offerings for the academic year. Each year, the Faculty Art Exhibition features the artwork of selected members of the Art Department faculty. This year, the Gallery will showcase the work of Prof. John Bohac (Studio: Painting, also an Art Department alumnus), Prof. Jim Jereb (Studio: Printmaking), and Prof. Ping Xu (Visual Communications).
The opening reception will be held on Tuesday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m. in the University Art Gallery (Ophelia Parrish Fine Arts Center, Rm. 1114 on Truman’s campus). As always, Gallery events are free and open to the public–and the receptions always include refreshments as well. We hope to see you there!
Image Credits: above–John Bohac, Aquarium, 2014. below–Ping Xu, terra cotta warriors poster.
Truman State University Art Department faculty and alumni participated in the recent Renaissance Society of America annual conference in New York City in late March, 2014.
Dr. Jasmine Cloud (alumna, Art History; who just recently received her doctorate in Art History from Temple University) presented a paper entitled "In and Out of the Roman Forum: Charting the Properties of Ss. Cosma e Damiano and S. Francesco Romana" based on her archival research on Roman architecture and urban layout.
In addition, Dr. Julia DeLancey (Art History) and Dr. John Garton (alumnus, Art History; Associate Professpr of Art History at Clark University) co-organized a pair of sessions entitled "Harmonies and Disharmonies in Leonardo 's Approaches ot the Body". In one of those sessions, Dr. Garton presented a paper entitled "Leonardo and Creative Ugliness" and Dr. DeLancey a paper entitled "On Bended Knee: Leonardo da Vinci and the Anatomy of Devotion". The sessions came out of a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, "Leonardo da Vinci: Between Science and Art" held in Florence, Italy in the summer of 2012. The Institute was organized by Dr. Francesca Fiorani (University of Virginia).
Finally, Dr. Ryan Gregg (alumnus, Art History: Assistant Professor, Webster University) presented a paper entitled "Anachronism as Fact: Vasari's Resurrection of the Porta San Gallo Monastery for Cosimo il Vecchio" in a session called "Reconsidering Premodern Accuracy: Verisimilitude and Truth Claims".
Thanks to Prof. Matt Derezinski for sharing with us some recent updates from his curriculum vitae:
Honorable Mention, St. Charles Community College, Regional Juried Art Exhibition 2014, St. Louis, Missouri
3rd Place, Leading Artist Gallery, Visions of the World, Shrewsburg, www.leadingartistsgallery.com
Merit Award, Northwest Art Center, Americas 2014: Paperworks, Minot, North Dakota
Special Merit and Special Recognition Award, Online Gallery Light Space & Time, All Photography Art Exhibition – February 2014, www.lightspacetime.com
Limelight winner, eXel Photo Magazine : 1 of 2 as feature in the magazine
Best Digital or Mixed Media Artwork, Still Point Art Gallery, Landscapes by Day – Landscapes by night, www.stillpointartgallery.com
Congratulations to Prof. Lily Lee who had her work juried into a upcoming exhibition in Portgual entitled Contextile 2014 Contemporary Textile Art Biennial.
Congratulations to Prof. Matt Derezinski (Visual Communications) and Prof. Lily Lee (Studio: Fibers and Sculpture), both of whom received Honorable Mention at the 2014 Regional Juried Art Exhibition at the Saint Charles Community College Art Gallery!
Congratulations to Prof. Wynne Wilbur (Studio: Ceramics) who had her majolica work selected for exhibition in a show entitled " Material Attraction: Diverse Reactions V" at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illnois!