Alumni Art Show Emphasizes Design, Composition
Alumni artists display their new works in the first Alumni Art Show in the Flora Kirsch Beck Gallery at Alma College.
The exhibit highlights the work of art degree-holding Alma College alumni who were selected by invitation to participate in the show, which continues through Nov. 10. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. A closing gallery reception takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov 10th. Admission is free and open to the public.
“One common thread of this show is an emphasis on the fundamentals of draftsmanship — the drawing and rendering of the form — and on solid design and composition,” says Daniel Connolly, gallery director.
Artwork by Tina Vivian
Featured artists include Beth Siewert Purdy ‘00, Sue Goethal Campbell ’79, Michael Barnes ’91, Emily Damstra ’97, Tina Vivian ’94, Garth Glazier ’80 and Shaina Buhl ’11.
“The work of Michael Barnes is very strong,” says Connolly. “The pieces are challenging, simultaneously dark and humorous. His imaginative figures are both menacing and sympathetic and leave us with questions about the plight of our roles in the world.”
Purdy’s work is more individualistic, examining the female body through the lens of modern medical imaging, says Connolly, while Damstra’s work features minute and careful attention to the details of biological specimens, which establishes a scientific discourse with the modern material world.
“Vivian's work celebrates women intently working in a modern setting, challenging traditional stereotypes,” says Connolly. “She turns sympathetic attention to gesture and pose as she observes and records the intense focus of dressmakers and costumers at work.”
The show also features photography and digital presentations by Glazier and Buhl, including a mix of complex patterns and layers.
“Campbell has perhaps the least in common with her cohorts, but her work too is lyrical in line and form,” says Connolly. “She offers, in her videos and her perforated relief prints, a dynamic vision of contemporary urban Detroit, changing, mercurial and, in the prints, reduced to an essential vision of the silhouette.”
Interactive Gallery Installation Highlights Indigenous Activism
On display in the gallery concurrently with the alumni show is the work of border-crossing artist, activist, historian and curator Dylan Miner, whose artwork overlaps with both Hispanic Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Month.
Miner’s two-part exhibit consists of a series of woodblock prints of immigrant and Native American sports figures and an interactive installation created specifically for Alma College.
The installation features several framed prints that reference labor rights. In the center is a table featuring markers, poster board, wooden boards and a staple gun for viewers to use to create their own protest signs.
Miner, a Michigan native, was awarded an Artist Leadership Fellowship in 2010 from the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian) and will hang five solo exhibitions in the United States and Canada this year alone. He currently teaches at the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University, coordinates the Michigan Native Arts Initiative, and curates at the MSU Museum.
Posted: Fri, October 28th, 2011 at 12:34PM
