Alumni

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Alumnus Shows at Indian Hills

Truman alumnus Joe Hermann has an exhibition up at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa. Joe did his AA degree at IHCC, then came to Truman where he majored in painting. He then went on to the University of Delaware, where he earned his MFA.

Joe is “interested in the infinite aspect of art making, capturing moments in time. His painting are full of the nuance and drama that makes life interesting.” The gallery is open Monday-Thursday and Sunday afternoons. His exhibition is up until Thursday, March 25th. Congratulations, Joe! It looks like a wonderful show!

 

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News from Current and Former Students

We have lots of great news, from some current students:

Daniel Degenhardt and Linnea Moody both have received Tru-Scholars fellowships for undergraduate research this coming summer. Both of them will be working with Photography Professor Priya Kambli.

Art major Abby Moreno will be doing research through the McNair program this summer. Dr. Heidi Cook will be her mentor for that project.  

And Department Chair Aaron Fine writes:

Current Art Major Natalie Gruber was surprised but pleased by the response to her painting of “Mothman in Domestic Bliss” – a painting she created in her Painting I class. When she posted it on twitter it received over 23,000 likes and was shared over 8,000 times within just a few days. Comments included those begging her to sell prints of the image, so it seems this one post has led to a new side business for her.


 

And we have news from an Alumna of the department:

Painting alumna Megan Klco Kellner had her collection of poetry selected to be published as a chap book by Michigan Writers Cooperative Press. More information can be found in their Facebook Announcement:

Michigan Writers Cooperative Press — Chapbook Contest Winner

Michigan Writers Cooperative Press is pleased to announce the winner of our annual chapbook contest. This year we will be publishing one new author, Megan Klco Kellner and her poetry chapbook, “What Will You Teach Her?”

Megan’s book will be released at a celebratory reading and reception on Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 7pm. We invite the public to join us for this free event at the Writing House on the campus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Mark your calendars to help us celebrate Megan’s work.

Megan Klco Kellner writes poems and makes paintings in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds an MFA in painting from Kendall College of Art and Design. She started writing poems in earnest during late-night feedings after her children were born. She is, above all, their awe-filled observer.

 

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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!

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

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 Bowring, Emily Nickel, Alexander 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.

 

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Alumni Artists to Visit Campus

MimiJimmyFLyer

Thanks to funding from the School of Arts and Letters we are happy to have Mimi Kato and Jimmy Kuehnle visit campus to give talks about their work.  Both are successful artists, living and working in Cleveland, Ohio. We hope you will be able to join us to hear about their current creative work.

The flyer has an image from Mimi Kato’s work; an example of Jimmy Kuehnle’s work is below.

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Updates on some recent graduates

Congratulations to the following students who have sent us their recent news:

Katie Feldkamp, a 2017 Art History/History double major, will be attending graduate school abroad this fall. She writes:

I will be attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland this September for their Museum and Gallery Studies MLitt program. The program is a year-long course that focuses on practical hands-on skills as well as more theoretical coursework and provides students with broad training in all types of museums, galleries and other heritage facilities.

Lisa Simms’ news comes from painting professor Lindsey Dunnagan:

Lisa Simms has been working as a Teaching Artist at Resident Arts in Columbus, MO.  She works with teen artists to teach them different painting techniques and they are also working on a large public mural along the MKT trail under Elm Street.  The position will come to a close around the end of the summer when the full-time person returns from maternity leave.

Lisa Simms (right) with professor Lindsey Dunnagan (left) at Simms’ capstone exhibit.

Art History grad Kathryn Hodge, who has been a curatorial intern at the St. Louis Art Museum this summer, writes to say she has accepted a part time position with Leslie Hindman Auctioneers as a client services specialist.  As she has always been interested in the collecting aspect of art, this is a great move for her.  We wish her the best of success!

If you are a Truman art student alumna/alumnus and would like to share your adventures with us, please write us at art@truman.edu.  We’d love to hear from you!

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

Dr. Sara Orel Leads Tour of Egyptian Exhibit in St. Louis

Art History professor Sara Orel, whose speciality is ancient Egypt (she has her Ph.D. in Egyptian Archaeology), led a June 10th tour of the Sunken Cities exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum for members of Truman State University’s Alumni Association.  The show includes objects from underwater excavations of the lost cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, off the northern coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean sea.  In addition there are several pieces on loan from the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt, and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.  Thirty former (and current) Truman students and their friends and family got to see the objects which included beautiful jewelry and statues, including three colossal statues of granite set up in the lobby of the museum.  Art History graduate Krista Garcia took several pictures and was willing to let us use them here.

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

Congratulations to May 2018 Graduates!

Congratulations to May 2018 graduates from Truman State University’s Art Department.  Our graduates are going on to take up exciting jobs, graduate programs in a variety of fields, and internships in businesses and museums.  Three Art History majors are going to serve as curatorial interns this summer at the St. Louis Art Museum.  These include the two graduates shown here, Amelia Goldsby and Kathryn Hodge, as well as rising senior Kalven Duncan.

We look forward to hearing from all of our graduates about your post-Truman experiences.  Please keep in touch and send your updates to art@truman.edu.