DSU’s art faculty are practicing artists, designers, and filmmakers who regularly exhibit in venues across the nation. The annual faculty exhibition, held at the Fielding Wright Art Center, offers the campus and the community an opportunity to view new work created by these artists. The exhibition opens with a public reception 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1.
The work of DSU’s art faculty presents great diversity in subject, approach and media. The exhibition will feature work in ceramics, furniture design, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, textile, and video.
Amy Cannestra, who joined DSU this fall, is a graphic designer and multi-media artist. Cannestra creates video and sculptural installations intended to submerge viewers in unexpected, sometimes uncomfortable, situations.
Ron Koehler, chair of the art department, creates wood sculpture which presents a social commentary on present day issues. The seriousness of the issues addressed notwithstanding, Koehler frequently takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the subject. Included in this year’s faculty exhibition will be his Atomic Coffee with Donut Mushroom Cloud which refers to the current situation in Iran, while his Mr. Birdman has a Heart deals with altruism.
Professor Emeritus Pat Brown, who retired last year, is returning with large mixed media drawings, sculptural and textile work. Brown continues to explore the psychological associations evoked by objects and materials found in the natural world in work that combines diverse materials and forms.
Natalie Carroll, a graphic designer, critically responds to our culture’s inundation with media images.
Carroll said, “In a selfie-obssessed, hypersensitive time, we all begin to question our position, contributions, and messages.”
The work she will show consists of a series of collage posters that explore pop culture ideas and themes and present them in a manner that allows the viewer to examine their own existence among excessive stimulation of messages and ideals.
Will Jacks, an adjunct instructor and photographer, will present a new project in which he explores the relationship between photographic images and memory. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, one of the inventors of photography had called his invention “the mirror with a memory,” and photography has come to play a central role in creating public and private records of our past.”
“What would happen if we didn’t have triggers to remind us of our past?” Jacks said. “What if there were no photos, no heirlooms, no memorabilia? And if we do have those objects, do they change our memory or does our memory change them?”
Ky Johnston, a ceramic artist, tries to work in a way that shows respect for his materials. The artist explains that in his pottery functional considerations take a priority, yet within that framework he explores surfaces made possible by cutting and stretching clay and forms produced by altering round pots. In recent years, he has been incorporating imagery that in the past would have belonged in paintings or prints into his pottery.
Michaela Merryday produces wall pieces and jewelry from felt. Her choice of medium is the result of her interest in sustainability – felt has a low environmental impact and is recyclable. The forms of her work are inspired by minimalist designs – from the pared-down furniture of the Bauhaus to Donald Judd’s aluminum boxes. By translating their forms and textures into soft organic materials that invite touch she attempts to humanize minimalism.
Jon Mark Nail, a film maker, whose work explores Mississippi, its culture and its myths. The artist asserts that as a native son of Mississippi he is drawn to what he treasures, and what he finds completely inescapable is Mississippi itself. In particular, he is fascinated by what he calls Mississippi’s idiosyncrasy.
Nail sees Mississippi as “a land steeped in contradiction: a land that is at once lush and barren, a society known for its gentility as well as its savagery, a prideful people and a shamed people.” Yet, “that is what, thematically, I am drawn to as an artist, as a native son. Hope and despair. Great promise, and dreadful demise. Love and death and honor and collapse. These are the themes of the south. These are the themes of the native son,” Nail said.
Cetin Oguz is an abstract painter who is interested in the process of painting. According to the artist, he is preoccupied with “the process which occurs naturally and defines the space and the process which suspends the intellect within the void of its activity. The natural markings, scratches, layers, and lines are kept and reworked in the present as though to reveal more of the past.”
Kim Rushing, head of the photography section, will exhibit a new series of work created with the humblest of cameras, the phone camera.
Mollie Rushing is a textile artist creating colorful quilts with complex patterns. Rushing explains that she is interested in the spaces that she encounters and that her work explores spatial relationships through the juxtaposition of color, texture and patterns.
Michael Stanley is a sculptor who recently was selected as one of the artists to be featured at the new Grammy Museum in Cleveland. Stanley favors art that is interactive and creates a sense of community which led him from sculpture to furniture design.
Stanley often integrates playful incongruities into his work it more accessible and encourage participation.
Stanley said his aesthetic comes from “industrial memories of my childhood and travels: areas where the natural world and urban development meet, such as a bridge crossing the muddy waters of the Missouri River or the unseen beauty of overgrown abandoned brick warehouses. The combination of human innovation with the unrelenting forces of nature has always captivated me, and I often incorporate that look of strength amidst decay in my artwork.”
DSU’s Annual Faculty Exhibition will be on view until October 29. The gallery is open Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, please contact the Art Department at 662-846-4720.
