Wright Center
Art Gallery

Please join us to celebrate our graduating seniors at the opening of their Senior Thesis Exhibition on Friday, May 5, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm following the commencement ceremony. The graduating seniors are

Nicholas D. Curry

Mov Etheridge

Will McCluskey

Kady Smith

Mason Smith

Max Steuer

Laken Templeton

Iya-Marie Turner

Claude Wright

The Senior Thesis Exhibition will remain on view until Thursday, June 22.

The Annual Juried Student Exhibition allows the department to highlight the work our students have produced in the past year and affords students an opportunity to gain professional experience by preparing work for exhibitions and submitting it to a jury process. Students submitting work are also eligible to win monetary awards in a variety of categories. The awards are made possible through the generous support of art patrons from the Cleveland community.

This year’s juror is Greely Myatt, a professor of sculpture at the University of Memphis and a DSU alumnus.  He has exhibited widely across the United States, Europe and Japan. In 1994 he was awarded the Mississippi Arts and Letters Visual Arts Award. In 2009, a twenty-year retrospective of his works was exhibited across Memphis in nine museum and gallery venues.

As every year, we will also feature Salon des Refusés in the Holcomb-Norwood Annex which will display a student-curated collection of the artwork that did not make it into the main event.

Please join us in celebrating our students’ success on Thursday, March 9, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Awards will be presented at 6:00 p.m. The Annual Juried Student Exhibition will remain on view from March 9 to April 20.

SPONSORED BY

Dave Alford and Adventure Frames

Maureen and Bucky Brooks

Danny Whalen and Cleveland State Bank

Katie Cofer

Charlene B. Graham

Ron Koehler

Kayla and Jeremiah Matthews

Carmen and Cetin Oguz

Marcella Small

Stephen and Jamie Smith

Carol Tatum

Dr. Robert Tibbs, III

Kendra J. Whitehead

Dr. Ellen Green, DSU’s Dean of the College of Arts and Science

President Caston, and the President’s Cabinet

Selection of Japanese Woodcut Prints from the Permanent Collection will be on view 19 January to 16 February, 2023

In conjunction with the exhibition of Japanese Woodblock Prints at Delta State University’s art gallery, Mizuki Umebara, Japan Outreach Initiative (JOI) Coordinator at DSU, will discuss the history and function of Kimonos, a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan.

February 9, 4:00 pm, Fielding Wright Art Gallery

Regular Gallery Hours

Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Closed weekends, holidays, and semester breaks.

 Sarah Nguyen is a multimedia artist living and working in rural Missouri. Story-telling is central to Nguyen’s art practice. She creates large-scale paintings overlaid with hand-cut fiber panels inspired by folklore and literature. As the artist explains, “Using stories as the source of my artistic inspiration I mean to return the viewer temporarily to a state of childhood, dwelling in the senses, immersed in the images of stories.” The paintings combine abstract and representational forms and evoke the sentiment of rather than illustrate their sources. While the layering of media suggests the transformation of these stories in our memories and the passage of time. Nguyen is less interested in directing her audience toward a particular interpretation of the work than in inspiring the exploration of one’s own memories.

Nguyen received a BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibits and publications nationally and internationally. Most recently she had a solo exhibition at George Caleb Bingham Gallery, University of Missouri, Columbia MO; Flora Kirsch Beck Gallery, Alma College, West Superior- Alma, MI; Fitton Center For Creative Arts, Hamilton, OH; and Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, Broward College, Davie, Florida. In the last two years, she completed residencies in Athens, Greece, Ontario, Canada, Belgrade, Serbia, and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Sarah Nguyen: Abecedarian For The Dangerous Animals will be on view in the gallery from November 3 to December 8, 2022. The artist will introduce her work via Zoom on November 3 at 4:00 pm.

2022 DSU ANNUAL FACULTY EXHIBITION

Delta State University’s Art Department presents its annual faculty exhibition in the Fielding Wright Art Gallery on campus from September 29 to October 27. DSU’s art faculty are practicing artists, designers, and filmmakers who regularly exhibit in venues across the nation. The annual faculty exhibition offers us the opportunity to show work created by these artists over the past year.  The artwork on view reflects the diverse interests of DSU’s art faculty.

Participating artists are Korkut M. Akacik, Jesse Ryan Brown, Ted Fisher, Ky Johnston, Lawson King, Ron Koehler, Michaela Merryday, Cetin Oguz, Nathan Pietrykowski, Kayla Selby, and Robyn Wall.

The department invites the public to an opening reception on Thursday, September 29 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

YOSHIKO SHIMANO: DAR SALAAM

Delta State University’s Art Gallery opens its 2022-2023 season with an exhibition of prints by Yoshiko Shimano entitled Dar Salaam. 

Yoshiko Shimano is a Japanese-born artist who lives and works in Albuquerque, NM. Shimano creates large-scale prints that are informed by the tradition of Japanese woodcut prints but incorporate a variety of different printmaking techniques. Shimano believes that an artist has a responsibility toward society that expands beyond the studio and the gallery. Not only does her work address social and environmental issues but she has also collaborated on various outreach projects and produced prints for the victims of natural disasters with her students at the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico.

Shimano’s print series Dar Salaam, which means “Place of Peace,” was inspired by a trip to the Kedougou Region in the southeast of Senegal in West Africa. The prints focus on the living condition of the inhabitants of the small village Dar Salaam. While the village suffers from a dearth of resources such as food, water, goods, transportation, and education, the villagers have used creativity and empathy to develop a sustainable lifestyle. The series includes images of women who grow vegetables which they sell at a market an hour’s walk away to supplement their families’ income and others who manage to prepare hearty meals for their families with the limited ingredients available. Other prints show the children of Dar Salaam who lack toys, books, and school facilities playing in and learning from the environment.

In Senegal, as in other parts of the world, the socio-economic gap between rural areas and metropolitan centers is enormous and growing. While Shimano’s series addresses social issues in Senegal, she is concerned about similar socio-economic trends in the U.S. Shimano explains that “I introduce the images of the villager’s everyday lives living with hope and strength in Dar Salaam, to express how human beings can be creative and humble, appreciate what they have, and feel fulfilled. The people of Dar Salaam made me think of what real wealth and happiness are. I would like to celebrate Dar Salaam’s strength of life, spirituality, and beauty in my prints.”

Yoshiko Shimano: Dar Salaam will be on view in the gallery from August 25 to September 22, 2022. The artist will introduce her work via Zoom on August 25 at 4:00 pm. Use this link to join Yoshiko Shimano’s Zoom presentation: https://deltastate.zoom.us/j/95047031551. An opening reception at which light refreshments will be served will be held on August 25 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

The Annual Juried Student Exhibition allows the department to highlight the work our students have produced in the past year and affords students an opportunity to gain professional experience by preparing work for exhibitions and submitting it to a jury process. Students submitting work are also eligible to win monetary awards in a variety of categories. The awards are made possible through the generous support of art patrons from the Cleveland community.

This year’s juror is Justin Bryant. Bryant is a painter and teaches at the University of Arkansas Pulaski Tech. He received his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and his MFA in Studio Art from Louisiana State University in 2018. He was a 2019 Interchange Artist Fellow for the Mid America Arts Alliance and was awarded a summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has had solo exhibitions at the Thea Art Foundation, Little Rock, AR, Arkansas State University, Beebe, AR, and Michigan State University, Lansing, MI, and participated in numerous group exhibitions. His work was included in the 2019 New American Painting South Issue.

As every year, we will also feature Salon des Refusés in the Holcomb-Norwood Annex which will display a student-curated collection of the artwork that did not make it into the main event.

Please join us in celebrating our students’ success on Thursday, March 10, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Awards will be presented at 6:00 p.m. The Annual Juried Student Exhibition will remain on view from March 10 to April 21, 2022.

We would like to express our gratitude to the following for sponsoring student awards:

Dave Alford and Adventure Frames

Vickie Bingham

Maureen and Bucky Brooks

Cleveland State Bank

Travis “Chip” and Janet Cooper

Scott and Cindy Coopwood and Coopwood Communications

Patrick Davis for State Farm

Ron Koehler

Bill Lester

McCarty family

Kayla and Jeremiah Matthews

Carmen and Cetin Oguz

Lisa B. Percy

Planters Bank of Cleveland

Gunner Sizemore

Dr. and Mrs. Hugh C. Smith

Carol Tatum

DSU’s Dean of the College of Arts and Science

President Bill LaForge

President’s Cabinet

Katrina Majkut, Medical Abortion, Thread on aida cloth, 2015

Katrina Majkut is an artist who investigates how social traditions impact civic rights. The ongoing series In Control which she began in 2009 consists of embroidered renditions of products related to women’s reproductive health. The work and her choice of medium are intended to raise questions about who has authority over women’s bodies and choices. According to the artist, “Historically, embroidery prepared women for marriage. Samplers represented domestic skill levels and specific cultural and religious values to potential husbands who sought a woman with the right skills to establish a household – make clothes, darn socks. Cross-stitch was used to advertise and represent womanhood, wifedom and motherhood but bodily functions, autonomy and diverse lifestyles was not part of this textile practice. The ‘domestic craft’ of In Control attempts to counter this by attempting to stitch all products related to women’s health and needs with a fully comprehensive, bipartisan, educational and medically honest approach.”

Katrina Majkut was listed as one of four international artists starting a new chapter in feminist art by Mic Media and highlighted as a must-see artist by Hyperallergic. You can view more of her artwork at katrinamajkut.format.com. Majkut organized an Instagram art takeover for Planned Parenthood, exhibited at Spring Break, A.I.R. Gallery, Victori + Mo Gallery, CUNY College of Staten Island, Babson College, the Mint Museum, and was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA. Majkut published her first non-fiction book in 2018, The Adventures and Discoveries of A Feminist Bride (Black Rose Writing), which aims to make weddings more egalitarian. Her art catalogue is in the library at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, D.C.

In Control will be on view at DSU’s Fielding Wright Art Center from January 13 to February 17. Due to the rising Covid-19 cases, we will forgo an opening reception, however, the artists will discuss their work and take questions via Zoom on Thursday, January 13 at 4:00 pm. Check the art department’s website or email mmerryday@deltastate.edu for a link. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The gallery is closed on weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks. Masks are required in all DSU facilities.

Delta State University’s Art Department is proud to present an exhibition of recent paintings by an alumnus of its program, Tommy Goodman. Tommy Goodman is a painter and retired architect based in Carrollton, MS. Mr. Goodman graduated from DSU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1968. He taught art at St. Andrews Episcopal Day School in Jackson for a few years before returning to school to pursue a degree in architecture at Auburn University, Auburn, AL. Mr. Goodman went on to build a successful career in architecture working as architect and design principle with architecture firms in Jackson, MS and Birmingham, AL. His projects earned numerous regional, national, and international awards. After retiring from his architectural practice, Mr. Goodman taught art and architecture as an adjunct professor at Mississippi State University. He still serves as consultant for historic restoration projects, but since 2009 he has dedicated himself fully to his painting practice. He recently published a book surveying his paintings titled Delta Artist Tommy Goodman: Painter/Architect.

Mr. Goodman creates abstract paintings and large-scale landscapes inspired by the Mississippi Delta. He explains that “Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, I have always been intrigued by the haunting horizontal vastness and variety in Delta panoramas, particularly the skies. As I paint from memory and past observations, the completed image is always an abstraction of the original experience.” His landscapes paintings done in acrylic on paper offer sweeping panoramic views of the Delta. The unusual format of these landscapes recalls the work of 19^th-century American landscapists such as Jasper F. Cropsey and George Inness but also betray Mr. Goodman’s background as an architect.

An opening reception for Mr. Goodman’s exhibition will be held on Thursday, November 4 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. The opening reception is free and open to the public.

Recent Paintings by Tommy Goodman will be on view at DSU’s Fielding Wright Art Center from November 4^th to December 2nd.

2021 DSU ANNUAL FACULTY EXHIBITION

Delta State University’s Art Department presents its annual faculty exhibition in the Fielding Wright Art Gallery on campus from September 30 to October 28. DSU’s art faculty are practicing artists, designers, and filmmakers who regularly exhibit in venues across the nation, in fact, three of our faculty members are included in the 2021 Mississippi Museum of Art’s Invitational exhibition.  The annual faculty exhibition offers us the opportunity to show work created by these artists over the past year.  The artwork on view reflects the diverse interests of DSU’s art faculty.

Participating artists are Korkut M. Akacik, Jesse Ryan Brown, Ted Fisher, Ky Johnston, Michaela Merryday, Cetin Oguz, Nathan Pietrykowski, Kayla Selby, Michael Stanley, and Robyn Wall.

As one would expect, a recurring theme in this year’s faculty exhibition is the pandemic. Ted Fisher, a film director specializing in arts and culture documentaries, produced a short film that reflects on the realities of artmaking amid a pandemic. Cetin Oguz contributed a series of drawings that explore how COVID-19 has redefined our personal and physical spaces with personal interactions mediated through electronic media. The drawings were created during virtual meetings with his students. Their multiple layers mimic the emotional turmoil many of us experienced in the last year.

Although not directly related to the pandemic, the theme of Kayla Selby’s work takes on new relevance under current circumstances. Selby uses unpredictable processes to simulate the complexities and potential awkwardness of human interactions, especially those that are overthought.

Nathan Pietrykowski’s work documents his ramblings about town through photographs, notes, and drawings which he later collages together to construct narratives that examine the psychogeography of place. Pietrykowski eventually developed a zine to allow others to experience their environment in the same manner. The zine contains instructions on what to look at, how to interact with the environment, and how to leave a mark on that place.

Robyn Wall is a printmaker whose work also focuses on her surroundings. Wall is interested in the narratives we construct about neighborhoods based on the structures and remnants we encounter there – pizza boxes that reveal a neighbor’s favorite pizza brand, discarded toys that betray the age of children living there, or abandoned furniture that announces a neighbor’s move.

Jesse Ryan Brown explores the relationship between objects and the passing of time in a different manner. His Nothing, Having Arrived, Will Stay uses appropriated 35mm slides as a meditation on the cyclical nature of time.

Michael Stanley’s large-scale steel and LED sculpture is a commentary on the pressures imposed upon us and our responses to them.

Korkut Akacik works in digital and new media. His work addresses political and social issues. He is trying to engage his viewers through unexpected encounters with seductively beautiful imagery or, alternately, with disturbing images and sounds. Frequently, Akacik projects these images onto crumpled surfaces, the resulting distortion serves as a metaphor for the distortion of facts.

Ky Johnston’s new work presents a reflection on his roots in pottery and a continued attempt to blend influences from various sources into functional pottery. The work shown here is based  on functional forms which have been altered or stretched, sometimes cut or faceted. The glazes use common materials including various clays, wood ash, and some raw pigments, and are fired with gas. His goal is to allow the materials, processes, and long history of the craft to inform the end result.

Michaela Merryday’s research interests focus on sustainability and the role of culture in promoting sustainability. The jewelry shown here was fashioned from wood waste produced by furniture making and sculpture classes at DSU.

DSU’s Annual Faculty Exhibition will be on view until October 28. A closing reception will be held on Thursday, October 28 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The gallery is closed on weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks. Masks are required in all DSU facilities.

PlantBot Genetics, an artist team comprised of Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki uses art and humor to encourage a dialogue about environmental issues such as the pros and cons of genetically modified food and the decline of pollinators such as moths. PlantBot Genetics impersonates a biotech corporation engaged in the satirically misguided research, development, and marketing of transgenetic products. Their work takes the form of public performances as well as gallery exhibitions. During performances, the scientists clad in white lab coats demonstrate their products to the audience. Their gallery exhibition features drawings of potential transgenetic products, photographic documentation of performances, and the actual product – remote-controlled hybrid robot plants.

At Delta State University, PlantBot Genetics will show examples of their hybrid robot-plants as well as work from their ongoing Moth Project. Moth Project is the artists’ response to the decline of pollinator populations. While the decline of the bee population is well publicized, the effect insecticides have had on the moth population rarely makes the news. Moths play a vital role not only as pollinators but also in providing clues about the health of our environment. Moth Project consists of a solar-powered outdoor installation designed to attract moths and allow visitors to observe and learn more about the variety of moths that exist in their environs. One of the tents designed to attract moths, large-scale photographs of moths native to the Delta, paintings, and a series of videos related to Moth Project are on view in their exhibition.

To facilitate their interactive public installations and reach audiences beyond traditional art spaces, the team adapted an 18-foot trailer into a portable, off-grid exhibition, classroom, and community space called The ArtLab.  

PlantBot Genetics was founded in 2009. Highlights of PantBot Genetics’s exhibition record include the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Goethe Institute in Egypt, and the Bach Modern in Austria. Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki also have successful solo careers, DesChene as a painter, Jeff Schmuki as a ceramic artist.

Click here to view the online showcase of the 2021 Senior Projects.

The Annual Juried Student Exhibition allows the department to highlight the work our students have produced in the past year and affords students an opportunity to gain professional experience by preparing work for exhibition and submitting it to a jury process. This was a very unusual year and, for that reason, this year’s exhibition will look a little different. This year’s exhibition will be confined to the main rooms of the Fielding Wright Art Gallery to allow for social distancing and will also be featured on the gallery’s website.

Students submitting work are also eligible to win monetary awards in a variety of categories. The awards are made possible through the generous support of art patrons from the Cleveland community. We would like to express our gratitude to the following for supporting our students and the department:

Dave Alford and Adventure Frames, Maureen and Bucky Brooks, Patrick Davis for State Farm, Rory Doyle and Big River Bagels, Rori Herbison, Lawson King, Ron Koehler, Bill Lester, Karen and Ronnie Mayers, the McCarty family, Carmen and Cetin Oguz, Lisa B. Percy, Amanda Povall and Fusion Training Center, Dr. Charles and Marcella Small, Gunner Sizemore, Dr. and Mrs. Hugh C. Smith, Dr. Myrtis Tabb, as well as DSU’s Dean of the College of Arts and Science, President LaForge, and the President’s Cabinet.

This year’s juror is Maysey Craddock who was the graduate mentor of one of our faculty. Craddock is a Memphis-based artist with a long exhibition record. She received an MFA from Maine College of Art and a BFA from Tulane University. She has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of the University of Mississippi, Oxford; Stanier Gallery, Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA; the Baum Art Gallery, University of Central Arkansas, Conway; and the Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN.

As every year, we will also feature Salon des Refusés in the Holcomb-Norwood Annex which will display a faculty-curated collection of the artwork that did not make it into the main event.

Please join us in celebrating our students’ success on Thursday, March 18 at 5:00pm either via Zoom (links will be emailed) or watch the live-feed on the Art Department’s Facebook page.

The Annual Juried Student Exhibition will remain on view in the galley from March 18 to April 23, 2021. Masks and social distancing required. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. For more information, please contact the Art Department at 662-846-4720.

Dane Rule: Neutral Ground

21 January – 25 February

Dan Rule combines traditional methods of drawing with digital animation and video. The work presented in Neutral Ground offers a cross-section of his work and includes drawings, prints, and looping video animations.

The theme that unites these drawings and videos is their reflection on our perception of objects. Some objects become agreed upon symbols while the symbolism and significance of others are hotly debated, with competing fractions attempting to control and define their meaning. Other pieces muse on how a highly structured living thing is transformed into useful products that are completely open-ended in their final state or ask the question to what degree an object maintains its ‘sameness’ throughout the constant replacement of particles and cells, or the transformation from its natural state. Yet, other pieces are concerned with how objects and spaces change in time; that they exist as both spatial and temporal parts and how that may look if we were able to extend our view beyond three dimensions.

Dan Rule is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of New Orleans, where he runs the Digital Art, Video and Animation program. He has exhibited nationally and in Japan, Canada and Europe. Exhibition highlights include the International Print Center in NYC, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans, Ogden Museum, the Aurora Festival in Dallas, and the Lawndale Art Center in Houston.

Due to the pandemic, the exhibition will be featured online only, click here to visit the exhibition. The artist will present a virtual talk on Friday, February 12, at 1:00 pm to which the public is invited. The artist talk will be presented via Zoom, a link to it will be mailed to the friends of the gallery and can be found on the gallery’s website and the art department’s Facebook page the day of the screening.

Delta State University’s Annual Faculty Exhibition

Downtown, Cleveland

1 October – 28 October

Every fall Delta State University’s Art Department puts on an exhibition showcasing work produced by its faculty. DSU’s art faculty are practicing artists and designers who regularly exhibit in venues across the nation and the annual faculty exhibition offers the department an opportunity to share work created by these artists over the past year with its students, the campus, and the community. Due to the ongoing pandemic, all campus events have been canceled this fall. To keep the tradition alive and to show our appreciation for the support of the Cleveland community, the art department partnered with the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and will display their artwork in shop windows along Cotton Row and N Sharpe Ave this year. The public can view the work safely from the street while running errands or enjoying an evening stroll downtown. The exhibition will run from October 1 to October 28.

The art department wants to thank all the businesses who have made this event possible. Sponsoring businesses are Abraham’s, Balance Fitness, Blush Salon, Cleveland Fresh, Cotton Row Bookstore, Delta Dairy, Food Fix, H Squared, Heidi’s, KAT, and Rosson Co.

Participating artists are Jesse Ryan Brown, Do Kim, Ted Fisher, Ky Johnston, Michaela Merryday, Cetin Oguz, Nathan Pietrykowski, Kayla Selby, Mansoor Shams, Michael Stanley, and Robyn Wall.

Sammy Britt’s Retrospective

Delta State University’s Fielding Wright Art Center is proud to present a retrospective of Sammy Britt, a distinguished Mississippi artist and a long-time member of Delta State University’s faculty. In 2015, Britt was awarded the Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and in 2017, the Mississippi Governor’s Art Award. Sammy Britt has taught painting and drawing at Delta State for 35 years, retiring in 2002 as Professor Emeritus. Britt continues to share his unique approach to painting with DSU students, offering plein air painting classes at his studio on North Bayou.

Britt, a Delta native, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the Memphis Academy of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the University of Mississippi. In the summer of 1963, Britt took a workshop with Henry Hensche at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Britt credits Hensche with showing him a new of seeing light and color which would become the theme that runs through all of Britt’s work. Britt explained that Hensche taught a new way of seeing and painting that contrasted sharply with the traditional tonal methods taught in art schools. Hensche compared painting to music and insisted that just as a piece of music may be written in a certain key, painters should look for the specific light key that distinguishes the time of day, the weather, or the season. Britt spent his career exploring the language of light and color and the different light keys in which they are seen. Britt claims that “In our greatest artistic moment we can merely create a weak illusion of God’s great creative genius, but that tiny glimpse of God’s beauty is more than enough to share with another soul.”

Sammy Britt’s retrospective at Delta State University brings together work created over the last sixty years documenting his various interests. What makes the exhibition particularly special is that many of the works are from his own private collection and have not been shown publicly before.

Sammy Britt’s Retrospective will run from October 3 to October 31, 2019.  An opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 5^th from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.

 2018 ANNUAL FACULTY EXHIBITION

Delta State University’s Art Department invites the community to the opening reception of its annual faculty exhibition on Thursday, October 4, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. DSU’s art faculty are practicing artists and designers 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 work created by these artists over the past year.

The artwork on view reflects the diverse interests of DSU’s art faculty and drawings, paintings, prints, includes musical instruments, quilts, jewelry, and large-scale sculpture.

Sammy Britt is represented by a series of landscape paintings that explore the language of light and color and the different light keys in which they are seen.

Cetin “Chet” Oguz will showcase his recent portrait paintings and a series of landscape paintings depicting the reminiscences of Jones Bayou. In his portrait paintings, Chet chose people who impacted his life as models. His portrait paintings convey the vulnerability and beauty of the human figure, while his paintings of Jones Bayou remain loose and energetic.

Ky Johnston will present three custom-made guitars. His goal is to make instruments that are as enjoyable to play as his favorite guitars. His guitars combine elements of various instruments that he admires and use a variety of new and reclaimed woods, hardware, and electronics. While some of his guitars follow more traditional designs, others introduce unconventional shapes that might offer ergonomic improvements.

Michaela Merryday’s research interests focus on sustainability and the role of culture in promoting sustainability. This year she is showing jewelry made from wood and stone dust waste produced by furniture making and sculpture classes at DSU.

Nathan Pietrykowski will display selections from his interactive webcomic Stock which invites visitors to participate in games, submit photographs, collaborate on digital drawings, and leave voicemails. You can follow his webcomic on Instagram under @stocksubject43.

Mollie Rushing is a textile artist whose quilts use pattern and color to create the illusion of texture and space but also remain conscious of the history of quilts and their function in our lives.

Kim Rushing explains that when he is out in the world, living life, he is not often willing to carry his bulky digital SLR, instead, he reaches into his pocket for his phone.  It’s always with him, and people tend not to notice it because everybody has one. It, therefore, lends itself, more readily to the kind of images he enjoys making, namely, images that can be described by what Henri Cartier-Bresson called the“decisive moment.”

Kayla Selby’s series No employs a combination of digital and traditional media to explore interactions and the pressure to appease others in the current social landscape.

Michael Stanley’s sculpture Delta Queen was inspired by his time in the Mississippi Delta.  The dynamic patterning and jarring edges of the sculpture refer to the harsh and discordant environment of the Delta.  The contrapposto pose of the figure is a direct reference to classical sculpture, which is in contrast to the contemporary style of the sculpture.  The combination of classical and contemporary conventions here is meant to reference the duality of living life in the Delta:  We recognize our past but it is not what defines us.  The rust covering the steel is meant to represent strength amidst decay, something that is familiar in this area as well.  Delta Queen is also representative of his love for patterning and his desire to push his fabrication skills to the limit of his technical ability.

John Stiles who is a graphic designer works in a variety of media and explores a range of different subject matter. This year Stiles will show some of his paintings as well as digital illustrations and graphic design work.  His digital illustration Adolph the Laser-Sight Reindeer is a tour de force digital illustration that took about a year to complete. It is in the low-brow style influenced by artists such as Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Robert Williams, and Todd Schorr, however, the attention to detail of this piece cannot be fully appreciated unless seen on a large scale.

Robyn Wall is a printmaker whose work explores the personal associations our surroundings carry, whether landscapes or structures.  At the same, she makes the viewer aware that our memories can distort and recreate our images of these places.

DSU’s Annual Faculty Exhibition will be on view until October 25. The gallery is open Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and on Friday from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. For more information, please contact the Art Department at 662-846-4720. Join our email list to receive regular updates on upcoming events or follow us on Facebook.

Raymond Gaddy grew up in southwest Alabama and his work is strongly influenced by the stories he heard there during his youth. According to Gaddy, there is a long tradition of Southern storytellers, historians of the mundane. Many of the South’s great writers fit into this category. As a result of being immersed in this environment, he too has become a storyteller. Not being blessed with the gift of words, Gaddy presents his stories in visual form, creating tapestries that combine different images, materials, and textures that are linked together by colorful threads. The stories he presents are based on everyday experiences and observations because, as Gaddy puts it, “The best stories have a history, a provenance, which gives them some gravity.”

Raymond Gaddy is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Georgia Southern University. His artwork has been exhibited throughout the U.S and Europe and his work is in numerous collections including the College of Notre Dame of Maryland; The Savannah College of Art and Design; and the Library of Congress. Raymond is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship and a Joan Mitchell Grant.

Raymond Gaddy: Specimens will run from August 23 to September 27, 2018. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, August 23. 5:00-7:00 pm. Gallery Hours are Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks.

For further information visit our website at https://www.deltastate.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/art/ or contact 662.846.4720. For updates and announcements of upcoming events follow Delta State Art Department on Facebook or join our email list.

Ron Koehler Retrospective: 45 Years of Sculpture

Ron Koehler has taught at Delta State University for thirty-five years and served as chair of the art department for more than a decade. He retired this past summer as Professor and Chair Emeritus. During his long and distinguished career, Ron Koehler participated in over 500 regional, national, and international exhibitions, received countless awards, and saw his work enter the permanent collections of museums and galleries across the nation.

The retrospective, opening on August 31^st, offers a rare opportunity to glimpse the astonishing breadth of Koehler’s artistic pursuits, the subject matter that has occupied him, and the variety of media he has employed. The artist acknowledges that a casual visitor might get the impression that the work in this exhibition was created by more than one artist. According to the artist what connects all of his work is his interest in exploration: “Exploration of shape, form, media, color, texture, concept and genre. Exploration of technique, movement, scale, iconography, purpose and activism. Exploration of personal goals. Exploration of time and place. Exploration of fear, and exploration of the absurd.” His explorations of a subject matter or the possibilities of a medium often lead him to work in series. This retrospective includes a number of these series such as the humorous Balanced Diet series, various series of tools, and examples from his famous Brush series which numbers in the hundredths.

Another connecting element is the artist’s wonderful sense of humor. It is the structuring element in the Balanced Diet series which consists of an assortment of cholesterol heavy food items, but manifests itself in a more subtle way in his use of materials as in a recycled column that becomes the base of a figure or a piece of drift wood that is transformed into a brush. It also manifests itself in the delight Koehler takes in visual puns as when a piece of wood is manipulated in excess to fool the eye into thinking it is a Styrofoam cup, wood shavings come to simulate the bread crumbs on a fried chicken leg, and a perspective drawing is encased in a frame rendered in perspective.

Looking back at his career thus far, Koehler remarked: “I’m not sure if I made the choice to devote my life to creating art or if the choice was made for me long before I was born by some cosmic combustion I was never privy to. What I can say for absolute certain is that art and the creation of it has defined my life in immeasurable ways. This exhibition, I hope, will document the trip thus far.” We are looking forward to seeing where it will take him next.

Ron Koehler Retrospective: 45 Years of Sculpture will run from August 24th to September 21st, 2017. Ron Koehler generously donated all proceeds from the sale of artworks on display in this retrospective to the foundation of the Salley/Koehler Community College Scholarship Fund at Delta State University.

The exhibition In That Land of Perfect Day, as the book by the same title, is the visual document of a period of eight years Brandon Thibodeaux spent living in the northern Mississippi Delta. It chronicles the lives of the families he befriended there, marking important milestones such as the birth of a child as well as capturing their daily routines as they worked, played, attended church and provided for their children. Seen together these photographs are a testament to the strength, faith, and perseverance of his subjects. Thibodeaux explains that “While this work makes specific reference to the rural African American experience, I am reminded that these themes of faith, identity, and perseverance are common to us all. For these are the traits of strong men.”

Delta State University’s Fielding Wright Art Center Gallery invites the public to an opening reception for In That Land of Perfect Day on Thursday, January 18, 5:00-7:00 pm. The artist will present a public lecture on this project in the gallery before the opening reception at 4:00 pm. Earlier in the day, from 11:30 to 1:30, Brandon Thibodeaux will sign copies of his book at the Cottonrow Bookstore in downtown Cleveland.

In That Land of Perfect Day has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and other mainstream publications. The Guardian praised the photographs as depicting “the contemporary experience of rural African Americans with grace and dignity.

Brandon Thibodeaux’s career in photography began at a small daily newspaper in southeast Texas while studying photography at Lamar University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Photojournalism from the University of North Texas with a specialization in International Development. He currently resides in Dallas, TX, where he works for clients like Shell Oil International, MSNBC.com, TIME.com, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. When he’s not doing that he is likely found running the back roads of the American South with a twin lens over his shoulder.

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Delta State University’s Fielding Wright Art Center opens its 2016-2017 season on Thursday, August 25th with an exhibition of Julia Morrisroe’s I’m Sorry You Were Saying.

Julia Morrisroe is an artist and Associate Professor in painting and drawing at the University of Florida. Morrisroe’s work explores the question of what it means to paint today in an age in which digital technology has led to the proliferation and instant availability of images. Morrisroe is interested in how the flood of images streaming in front of our eyes have affected the way we perceive these images. As Morrisroe explains, “Images can be replicated, expanded, enhanced or associated with other images (relevant or not) instantaneously. The simultaneity of image and experience has led to images becoming hyper-contextualized. The image can no longer exist as a single painting but belongs to a network.” Morrisroe creates series of abstract paintings that invite the viewer to explore this hyper-contextualized condition. In her paintings patterns that are repeated, inverted, rescaled, disrupted, or reappear in different media. The artist’s intention is to “subvert the viewers’ desire to look at one painting, compelling a rambling, hyper-linked experience of viewing.”

Morrisroe holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Fine Arts from University of Washington. She has exhibited internationally, most recently her work was shown at Americas 2016: Paperworks Juried Exhibition, Minot State University, ND; Claypool Young Gallery, Morehead State University, KY; the Affordable Art Fair, Brooklyn, NY; OBRAS Foundation, Netherlands; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan. She has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships grants for her work and last year spent time at Anadolu University, Turkey, as Mevlana Faculty Exchange Scholar.

I’m Sorry You Were Saying? will run from August 25th to September 22th, 2016. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, August 25. 5:00-7:00 pm. The artist will present a public lecture on Thursday, September 22 at 4:00 pm. Gallery Hours are Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks.

Delta State University’s Fielding Wright Art Center Gallery presents an exhibition of Resa Blatman’s Gaia Series, a multi-media installation that addresses the causes and effects of climate change.

Resa Blatman’s exuberant, multi-layered paintings have always been inspired by nature, but in recent years her attention has turned to the alarming signs of climate change – global warming, shrinking arctic icecaps, rising water levels, extreme weather conditions, extinction of animal species, migration of species, and growing scarcity of natural resources. The title of Blatman’s series derives from the Gaia hypothesis developed by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis which provides a model for understanding the threats caused by environmental pollution, industrial exploitation of natural resources, and the growing world population. The theory sees our planet as a complex, synergistic, self-regulating system that helps to sustain conditions for life on Earth. It likens the living system of Earth to the workings of any individual organism that regulates body temperature, blood salinity, etc. The question then is how current developments such as rising global temperatures, ocean salinity, and greenhouse gases affect this system and the habitability of the planet.

Blatman recently completed a residency in the Arctic where she could observe the effects of climate change firsthand. Many of the works in this exhibition derive directly from this experience. Resa Blatman is not a scientist, but speaks from the perspective of a concerned citizen of the Earth. She hopes that her work inspires discussion and raises awareness of the issues while also providing her audience with an engaging visual experience.

Blatman is an independent artist from Somerville, MA. She earned a MFA from Boston University and a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has had one person exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia; Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA; Hartnett Gallery at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; and other places. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions, most recently at the Spartanburg Art Museum in Spartanburg, SC . Her work is in public and private collections across the United States, Europe and South Africa.

An opening reception for Resa Blatman’s Gaia Series will be held Thursday, November 3, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. The artist will discuss the work in the gallery before the opening reception at 4:00 pm. The exhibition will run until December 8. Gallery Hours are Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks.

Delta State University’s Fielding Wright Art Center Gallery and the Mississippi Museum of Art Present Home and Away: On the Road with Marie Hull

To celebrate Mississippi’s Bicentennial, the Mississippi Museum of Art has partnered with communities across the state to showcase Mississippi artists from the museum’s permanent collection as part of Art Across Mississippi: Twelve Exhibitions – Twelve Communities. The Fielding Wright Center will host a selection of work by famed Mississippi artist Marie Hull. Marie Hull had a special connection to Delta State University’s art department and its former chair, Malcolm Norwood. Hull donated 75 works of art, including a number of her own paintings and artwork from her personal collection, to the university which became the foundation for the department’s permanent art collection.

Home and Away: On the Road with Marie Hull brings together a series of paintings created during Marie Hull’s travels. The artist traveled widely throughout North America as well as to France, Spain, and Morocco. She recorded her delightful impressions of the places she visited in her sketchbooks, 67 of which she left to the Mississippi Museum of Art. From this trove of private treasures the museum has selected 30 sketches for this exhibition. These sketches provide a unique glimpse into the creative process of one of Mississippi’s greatest artists.

Delta State University’s Fielding Wright Art Center opens its 2015-2016 season on Thursday, August 20^th with an exhibition of Shara Rowley Plough’s Pastoral Tableau.

Shara Rowley Plough is an installation and mixed media artist who has worked in Cleveland, Mississippi, the last couple of years.  Plough’s work investigates social inequalities and consumer culture often utilizing the materials of consumer culture itself. Pastoral Tableau is a commentary on the pressures to consume. Advertisements hold up impossible promises on how purchasing a vast array of products will change our lives, make us more alluring, more fulfilled or more successful and our social status is measured not by our accomplishments, but by our ability to consume. The chase for the latest must-have consumer items is here represented by a life-size hunting scene consisting of a horse, a pack of hunting dogs, a slain fox and a fluffel of rabbits.

Horses and fox hunts are associated with the leisure activities of the affluent and, thus, for Plough become the ultimate symbol of success and aspirations. On the other hand, the cruelty of the hunt also stand for the cannibalistic nature of consumption.

The entire scene was painstakingly crochet from horsehair. Plough explains that the material used is an important aspect of her message, she was interested in the contrast between an unattractive waste material – horse hair – and the beauty of the horse which comes to symbolize the different aspects of consumption.

Plough earned an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her work has been included in the Arizona Biennial, the Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts Invitational, the Meridian Museum Bi-State Art Competition, the E. E. Bass Cultural Arts Center, and has shown at the Art Museum at the University of Memphis. Pastoral Tableau was created with the support of a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission.

Pastoral Tableau will run from August 20^th to September 24^th , 2015. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, August 20. 5:00-7:00 pm. Gallery Hours are Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks.

Robert E. Gerhardt, Muslim/American, American Muslim

Robert Gerhardt came to photography via sociology and anthropology, he became hooked on photography when he took a photography class to learn how to document his research projects. His interest in studying social behavior and human nature is apparent in his photographic work – his series The Straphangers presents the diversity of New York as gleaned from its subways, Life on the Border: The Karen People of Burma documents the struggle of the Karen people confined to refugee camps at the border between Burma and Thailand, and his most recent series Mic Check focuses on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and public protests.

Gerhardt became interested in learning more about and document Muslim cultures in the United States “in 2010 after reading about a controversy over converting an unused convent on Staten Island in New York into a mosque and community center. Many local residents vehemently protested the intended repurposing at various community board meetings, including the shouting-down of a US Army officer who simply asked if people would be willing to be good neighbors with the mosque.“ Gerhardt contacted the Muslim American Society who was behind the community center and was invited to visit the society’s Brooklyn chapter and photograph there. He spent several days a week at the center over the next year and through the center came to know the members of the community, was invited to schools and homes where he learned about the everyday encounters with prejudice Muslims face in post 9/11 era. He went on to photograph not only the Brooklyn community, but Muslim communities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Gerhardt hopes that the portrait he has created of the American Muslim communities will inspire his audience to learn more about the diverse Muslim cultures represented in this country and open a dialogue examining common misconceptions. Gerhardt’s project has been shown at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus, New York, NY; Schuster Art Gallery, Gannon University, Erie, PA; Schuster Art Gallery, Gannon University, Erie, PA; Annex Gallery, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA; Sidney Larson Gallery, Columbia College, Columbia, MO; and will move on to the John B. Davis Gallery, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID after its presentation at DSU.

In the spirit of Gerhardt’s project, the DSU Art Department and QEP (DSU’s Quality Enhancement Program) have partnered to present a series of events that will provide a forum for dialogue. The series begins with a public presentation by Dr. Ahm Reza, Assistant Professor in Biological and Physical Sciences at DSU, on the experiences of a Muslim immigrant to the US on November 12. On November 19, Emad Al-Turk and Okolo Rashid, founders of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, MS, will speak about the history and mission of the institution they founded. On December 3, a public screening of the film Arranged, which centers on the unlikely friendship between an Orthodox Jewish and Muslim teacher in New York. All presentations will be held at the Fielding Wright Art Center, begin at 5:00, and are free and open to the public.

Muslim/American, American/Muslim will be on view at DSU’s Fielding Wright Art Center Gallery from November 5 to December 11. The artist will introduce the exhibit and speak about his work on Thursday, November 5 at 4:00 pm at the Fielding Wright Art Center Gallery on the DSU campus. A public reception and an opportunity to meet the artist will follow from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. All events are free and open to the public.

The Fielding Wright Art Center is open Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It is closed weekends, holidays, and during semester breaks. For further information contact 662.846.4720. For updates and announcements of upcoming events follow Delta State Art Department on Facebook or join our email list.

Candace Hicks: Napoleon’s Wallpaper

Candace Hicks is a printmaker and book artist based in Nacogdoches, TX. The exhibition Napoleon’s Wallpaper treats the gallery as a puzzle box to be solved by the viewer. A combination of prints that reveal secret messages when viewed through special colored glasses, kinetic sculptures that reveal clues, puzzles that can be manipulated physically to reveal hidden compartments, and wall texts that guide the viewer from one station to the next, the exhibition operates like a game. The artist is using her background as a book artist to produce an exhibition of objects that look like art, but are actually part of an interrelated narrative puzzle. Books take for granted that viewer participation is necessary to complete the work, and Napoleon’s Wallpaper combines a storybook, interactive puzzle, and art exhibit into a room-sized installation. The viewer experiences the immersive quality of reading a mystery novel and solving the clues.

The title, Napoleon’s Wallpaper, refers to an anecdote regarding the cause of Napoleon’s death. He supposedly died from exposure to arsenic in the dyes used to print his wallpaper. Hicks once read three accounts of this story in the same week, and felt like she was receiving a secret, albeit meaningless message from the universe. Napoleon’s Wallpaper is like a room-sized book. It tells a story, but it also presents a puzzle game that has to be solved by the visitor/reader. It includes many moving parts that invite interaction. It resurrects forms of spectacle from the past: optical illusions and early animation devices. These forms are employed holistically to present a cohesive story that can only be solved with viewer participation.

Hicks is an Assistant Professor Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. Napoleon’s Wallpaper has recently been installed in Houston, TX. Hicks’ work has been shown in Rochester, N.Y.; Ashville, N.C.; Decatur, GA; Denver Colorado; New York, N.Y.; Moscow, Soviet Union; Vilnius, Lithuania; Budapest, Hungary; among other places.

Napoleon’s Wallpaper will run from January 14th to February 26th, 2016. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 14 from 5:00-7:00 pm. Gallery Hours are Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.