“As the Bicentennial approaches it has been obvious that our state’s artists have, throughout the years, been some of our best and most prolific story tellers. Clearly the arts and artists of Alabama will take a high profile position in celebrations statewide.” -- Alabama State Council on the Arts Annual Report 2018 UA art and art history students, faculty, staff and alumni have been intensely involved in our state's 200th anniversary celebrations over the last two years. Here are some of the creative ways our UA art community is participating in commemorating Alabama's history and setting a path for its future: ALABAMA HISTORY IN HIGH RELIEF Professor Craig Wedderspoon is designing part of Montgomery’s Bicentennial park and sculpture project planned for the west side of the Capitol building to be unveiled in December of 2019, with help from Assistant Professor Jonathan Cumberland. Tuscaloosa artist Caleb O’Connor is creating sixteen bronze relief panels with Wedderspoon, who is designing and installing the panels’ bases and supervising the casting process. Cumberland recently joined the team to work on graphics for the project. Wedderspoon is also working with O’Connor on a Tuscaloosa Bicentennial sculpture to be installed at Manderson Landing on the Black Warrior River. ALABAMA ARTISTS FEATURED IN PUBLICATION Fifteen current and past faculty and alumni of the department are included in a special Bicentennial publication honoring notable Alabama artists. Alabama Creates: 200 Years of Art and Artists, published by the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) and the University of Alabama Press, includes current Professor Craig Wedderspoon; distinguished art alumni William Christenberry, Frank Fleming, Darius Hill, Dale Kennington, James Emmette Neel, Scott Stephens; past faculty Gay Burke, Chip Cooper, Frank Engle, Al Sella, Richard Zoellner; and former UA art students John Kelly Fitzpatrick, Spider Martin, Carlos Alpha “Shiney” Moon and Nall Hollis. The coffee-table book will be coming out in July of 2019. Dr. Elliot Knight, ASCA’s new director, and a UA alumnus, was the chief editor and project director for Alabama Creates. COMMEMORATING ALABAMA'S MEDICAL HISTORY Alumnus April Terra Livingston recently completed three sculptures for the Mobile Medical Museum. Motherwork, which celebrates midwifery, is installed in the Mobile Medical Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden, along with Livingston’s Portrait of Bessie McGhee, a Poarch Creek midwife and herbalist. The Portrait of Dr. James A. Franklin, Sr., one of Mobile’s earliest African American physicians, is now on view in the Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery as part of the museum’s special exhibit Dreaming at Dawn: African Americans and Health Care, 1865-1945). Livingston's sculptures were made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and have been designated a Bicentennial project by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. Read more about Livingston's new sculptures here: https://art.ua.edu/loupe/alumna-casts-sculptures-for-bicentennial-project/ APT FEATURES PROFESSOR EMERITUS AND ALUMNUS Associate Professor Emeritus Robert O. Mellown was interviewed for Alabama Public Television's Discovering Alabama special on our state capitals for the Bicentennial. His area of expertise is Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama historical architecture. The episode aired in October 2018. COMMUNITY BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS Solo exhibitions by instructor and alumnus Tom Wegrzynowski, instructor Charlotte Wegrzynowski and alumna Kerry Kennedy at the Kentuck Gallery and the Teer Gallery at the Kentuck Arts Center in Northport were the inaugural exhibitions for Kentuck's "Year of Alabama Artists," designated an official Bicentennial event. One of eight outdoor sculptures at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Craig Wedderspoon’s welded aluminum sculpture, Oval, is installed in the new John and Joyce Caddell Sculpture Garden at the museum. Oval is part of Art in the Garden: The Inaugural Sculpture Garden Installation that celebrates Alabama’s Bicentennial and demonstrates the depth of creativity found in the state. The sculptures will be on display through spring 2020. COINCIDING WITH ALABAMA'S BICENTENNIAL CASTING ALABAMA'S LITERARY HISTORY Cast bronze sculptures by students of Professor Craig Wedderspoon were unveiled in downtown Monroeville, Ala., in April, as part of the Literary Capital Sculpture Trail. Monroeville, the birthplace of author Harper Lee, and the home of the Alabama Writers Symposium for the past two decades, has been designated the Literary Capital of Alabama. The sculpture trail, made up of 14 cast bronze works, celebrates ten writers who have put Monroeville on the literary map, including Harper Lee, Truman Capote, journalist Cynthia Tucker, and novelist Mark Childress. Although not an official Bicentennial event, the sculpture trail and its unveiling was planned to coincide with the 200th anniversary celebrations. The artists were studio art major Hunter Abdo, senior anthropology major Alysa Boyd, sophomore studio art major Zane Boyd, senior BFA major in sculpture and anthropology major Amber Daum, graduate student in creative writing and geography Josh Dugat, Jenn Gault (BFA 2018), special student Jim Harrison III, senior art history major and studio art minor Morgan Harrison, Pat Hoban (MFA 2019), senior studio art major Jonathan Lanier, senior studio art major Hannah Lincoln, BFA major in sculpture Ringo Lisko and senior studio art major Alyson Smith. For a slideshow of all the sculptures, click on this page: http://monroevillemainstreet.com/Literary-Capital-Bronze-Sculpture-Trail This story was featured in the May 30 Bicentennial Banner! For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.
Revisiting the Origins of Anxiety Through Art: An MFA Thesis Exhibition
Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present Manifestations, the master of fine arts exhibition of John Klosterman IV, March 21-28, 2019, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. There will be a closing reception for the artist, Thursday, March 28, 5-8 p.m. John Klosterman is a native of Daphne, Alabama. Growing up, he developed a fondness for machines and the tinkering that came along with them. His life-long love of tinkering now takes on a two-dimensional form in the physical process of printmaking. Instead of the turn of a wrench, he notes, it is now the carving of a block with a gouge. Layers of each print, much like parts of a car, are assembled in a manner that creates a functioning vehicle for the message of each piece. In his current body of work for his final MFA thesis exhibition, Klosterman confronts and examines his mental health issues, specifically anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, through imagery and the process of making art: "I use vultures and various birds of prey to depict the omnipresent oppressive feeling of my anxiety. They hover above my head and glare at me from the shadows as they wait for me to fail. I use family photographs and chemically transferred landscapes to hint at its possible origins. My appropriation of these captured moments allows me to revisit places or relationships that were a part of my upbringing. I print repetitive frame-by-frame stills and exhaustingly detailed diagrams over objects and landscapes. These transparent diagrams represent my struggle with obsessive compulsive thoughts." Klosterman received the BFA from the University of South Alabama in 2015, with a major in printmaking and a minor in interdisciplinary studies. In 2017, he presented a gallery talk about his art work and practice. This exhibition is in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967. Funding support for the Sella-Granata Art Gallery comes from the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Arts and Sciences. Admission to the gallery is always free. Hours are Monday through Wednesday 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The gallery is located at 109 Woods Hall in the heart of the UA campus on Woods Quad. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or visit: https://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
Artist Explores Patterns of Water in MA Exhibition
Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present Waterways, the master of arts exhibition of Ulrike Franz, April 4-11, 2019, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on UA campus. The public is invited to a reception for the exhibition Monday, April 8, 5-8 p.m. Originally from Germany, Ulrike Franz is a papermaker, printmaker and painter. Franz said her art work is inspired by her surroundings and she has been overwhelmed by the diversity of the natural world since she has lived in Alabama. "During the past few years in Alabama, the observation of water has become more and more interesting to me," she said, "as Tuscaloosa is surrounded by many lakes, creeks and rivers. The moving water surface creates patterns that fascinate me." This exhibition features Franz's work in several series of prints and paintings on paper created in the past two years, as well as photo-based prints series of cyanotypes and screen prints that are mixed with watercolor paintings. Ulrike Franz has held solo and group exhibitions of her artwork in Germany, France, Hungary and the Czech Republic. She was artist-in-residence in Szolnok, Hungary; freelanced in graphic design, painting; taught art classes to adults and children; and has worked as a gallery assistant and collections manager. Franz received the MA in art history, archeology and anthropology at the University of Tübingen, and has taken courses in Book Arts at The University of Alabama. She has held a private glider pilot license since 1983. For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/ or contact the department at (205) 348-5967. Funding support for the Sella-Granata Art Gallery comes from the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Arts and Sciences. Admission to the gallery is always free. Hours are Monday through Wednesday 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The gallery is located at 109 Woods Hall in the heart of the UA campus on Woods Quad. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or go to https://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
UA Seniors Present BFA Exhibition
Tuscaloosa – In one of the culminating events of their degree program at UA, Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates Allie Gant and Jennifer Gault present an exhibition, titled Raw & Unfinished Business, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery, November 5-8, 2018, with a closing reception on Thursday, Nov. 8, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Gault, who works in sculpture and ceramics, specifically in raw, unfired clay, said that she has been exploring “forms that communicate a personal mythology of emotions and memories.” She added that the raw clay she often uses in her work “represents the changeability of emotion, fallibility of memory and the transience of life.” Gant, who works in printing processes and ceramics, describes her visual ideas as attention to her own self care, as well as the things which “catch her eye,” such as flowers, trees, sunsets and people, the subjects of her work: “Through the course of being an art student over the last few years, I’ve made a ritual for myself to pay attention to what I pay attention to, meaning to spend a little extra time thinking about why I am drawn to certain things and try to figure out why.” Originally from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jennifer Gault's BFA concentrations are in sculpture and ceramics, with an anthropology minor. She has exhibited her art work in the 2018 Student Sculpture Exhibition, and the 2017 Annual BFA Juried Exhibition, both at Harrison Galleries, and in QuickTurnaround at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in 2017. In addition, she has published art work in UA's Marr's Field Journal in 2018. Gault is the recipient of the Angelo Granata Endowed Scholarship, the Elmore Endowed Scholarship, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship. She works full-time as a certified Fire Alarm Technician in the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at UA. A native of St. Louis, Mo., Allie Gant's BFA concentrations are in printmaking and ceramics, with an art history minor. In 2017, Gant exhibited her work in Eclectic Way, an exhibition of art from the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art and art by UA students inspired by those works, at the Paul R. Jones Museum. She participated in Geeza a Wee Exhib, a Scotland study abroad student exhibition in 2018 at Judith Rae Solomon Gallery, in Youngstown State University, Ohio, and has had several pieces accepted for publication in Marr’s Field Journal in 2017 and 2018, including the cover art of both editions. Image credits: left: Jennifer Gault, Temporary Love, 2016, 15 x 10 x 8 inches, unfired clay; right: Allie Gant, Lips, 2017, 22 x 30 inches, linoleum cut. The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is the professional degree for the artist; it is also the foundation for the masters program in studio art at UA. For more information about the BFA degree and our other degree programs in the Department of Art and Art History, go to http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/babfa-in-studio-art/ or contact the department at (205) 348-5967. Garland Hall is a five-minute walk from the Campus Drive Parking Deck and Bus Hub on Hackberry Lane. Gold 1, Crimson, Blue and Bronze CrimsonRide buses stop between Garland Hall and Gorgas Library. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/.
Sarah Marshall’s Fabric Prints Featured in Solo Show
Associate Professor Sarah Marshall has a solo exhibition, Untrustworthy Night, September 6-28, 2018, at the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, Fla. She features a collection of printed and dyed fabric works in which, she notes, “tones of blue, images of the eye and collage assembly suggest the nighttime activities of the human imagination." http://www.621gallery.org/2018/09/sarah-marshall-untrustworthy-night/
Printmaking Students Create “Eclectic” Art Exhibit at the Paul Jones Museum
The public is invited to a First Friday reception honoring intermediate printmaking students and their exhibition at the Paul R. Jones Museum, 2308 Sixth Street, Tuscaloosa on Friday, November 3 from 5:30-7:30 pm. "Eclectic Way" is the culmination of a semester-long research project by intermediate printmaking students working under Associate Professor Sarah Marshall. After visiting the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama and exploring its holdings, each student picked a specific work in the collection for further investigation. Students prepared an interpretation of their chosen work by studying the biography of the artist, and major themes important to that artist's work and by learning more about the techniques used to create the work. Students completed the project by creating an artwork of their own in response to the work of their chosen artist. The students' prints will be shown alongside the work that inspired them, inviting dialogue. Marshall hopes the project will give the students insight into the "eclectic ways" that other artists work. "This opportunity to work directly with a major collection challenges young artists to develop content and technique in their own work," Marshall said. For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, go here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/.
Gallery Talk on Printmaking Scheduled in the SMGA
Visiting artist and alumnus William Hall will hold an exhibition walkthrough in the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, Tuesday, November 7 at 10:00 a.m. Hall will talk about prints in the current show, Contemporary Consolidated: Selections from the Permanent Collection. As a former master printer at the esteemed Pace Editions for three decades, Hall is intimately familiar with the printing process, the artists and many of the prints on exhibit in this exhibition. During his time at Pace, Hall worked with internationally acclaimed and lesser-known contemporary artists including Donald Baechler, Richmond Burton, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tara Donovan, Helen Frankenthaler and more, representing a broad range of printmaking processes. A highpoint of Hall’s career was assisting master printer Aldo Crommelynck for ten years at Pace. Crommelynck is best known for his extensive collaboration with Pablo Picasso. Originally from Red Level, Alabama, William Hall received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from UA in 1973 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking from the University of Texas in 1976. He moved to New York in 1982 and began his career as a printmaker and collaborative printer at Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop. Four years later, he established his own studio, NYLE Press, and then joined Pace Editions in 1988 until his retirement in 2015. Pace is one of the largest publishers of contemporary fine art prints in the United States. The William and Sara Hall Collection includes more than 475 signed, limited-edition artists’ prints that the Halls collected over the years. The Halls donated the $1.5 million collection to UA’s Sarah Moody Gallery of Art in 2014. Funding support for this event comes from the printmaking media area of The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History and New College. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/smga/. Read this news release online: For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, go here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. Contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/smga/.
Art Students Explore Ideas of Nature and Femininity in “Out of Eden”
APR 24-27 Out of Eden, Sella-Granata Art Gallery APR 24 Opening Reception, 5-8 pm Out of Eden showcases the work of five graduating senior printmakers and painters in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery April 24-27, 2017. Artists Erika Busse, Sarah Johns, Rachel Jones, Emily Pickert and Ivey Scott exhibit paintings and prints that explore the overlapping themes of femininity and nature. The show represents the culmination of their time as student artists and each one has a particular point of view on the show's themes. The public is invited to an opening reception to meet the artists Monday, April 24, 5-8 pm. After seeing the students' work, Associate Professor Sky Shineman suggested that the students create the exhibition, the first time they have worked together. "The themes and materials shared by these women reveal a sophistication and curiosity about the world in which they live. Mythology, appreciation of natural beauty, craft and the powerful agency of art-making are a shared language among these works.” Shineman said that this exhibition highlights the way art-making can create relevance and meaning when combined with other departments at UA. "It is really exciting to see these engaged and enlightened artists from a variety of areas of study bring their voices together.” Erika Busse is a double major in studio art and general business with a minor in art history. Busse says she is inspired by nature and believes it is the purest form of beauty. "I want everyone to want to be in it as much as possible to draw inspiration in their own lives." She explains, "I am outside all of the time and try to bring the beauty of nature into the printmaking studio and my paintings. I use natural objects in my processes. I want my work to bring people the peace that I find in nature and remind them of its simple beauty." Sarah Johns is a senior in New College. Her depth study is titled Creativity and Mental Health, which combines art, psychology and social work. Johns says her work in this exhibition explores femininity and the fragility of the body. "I have paintings of bruises that range from abstractions to more realistic interpretations, and a few prints that depict women as the subject matter." After graduation, Johns plans to spend a year serving as a fellow at The Road in Atlanta, part of the Episcopal Service Corps, a nonprofit that advocates for social change. Rachel Jones is a BFA major with a concentration in printmaking and a minor in the Blount Scholars Program. "My work finds inspiration in the narratives of Classical mythology and traditional fairytales. By bringing physicality to their gaze, I hope to upend the expected representation of feminine characters, and to explore their stories through a modern feminist perspective that gives them agency over their own myth and environment." Emily Pickert is a senior in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Arts Management. "My work is about women’s experiences in this world and the vulnerability we face." Pickert points out that all the work in the show "forms a cohesive language of art and its story without sacrificing personal identity. Every piece from one artist adds depth to another’s in a way that would not be possible in a single-person show." Currently an intern at Kentuck Art Center, Pickert plans to take a year off before returning to graduate school to continue her studies in Arts Management. Ivey Scott, whose BFA concentration is in painting, noted that all the art works and the ideas are related by the subjects of nature, feminine exploration and by the techniques the artists used. Scott presents a series of landscape scenes in oil paintings and relief prints in which she creates certain moods. She hopes to share her love of the outdoors by taking the viewer into the picture. Go to our website for more information about the Department of Art and Art History’s degree programs. Funding support for the Sella-Granata Art Gallery comes from the UA Department of Art and Art History. Admission to the gallery is free. The gallery is located at 109 Woods Hall in the heart of the UA campus on Woods Quad. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 p.m. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. Contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
UA Graduate Student’s Art Work On Exhibit in Atlanta
UA studio graduate student Francesca Baldarelli's art work will be included in the group exhibition, Clay Review 3, at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs, GA, opening January 27 and running through February 23, 2017. There will be a closing reception for the exhibition on Thursday, February 23, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Abernathy Arts Center Arts Program Specialist Alex Kerr invited her to be part of the show. Kerr said, “Checa’s work was chosen for inclusion in Clay Review 3 because it represents a shift from the traditional handling and execution of ceramic work. I was most interested in how she uses ceramic elements as components of a larger mixed media sculpture.” Baldarelli elaborated, "The pieces in the exhibition stem from my printmaking sensibilities. I have taken my printmaking on paper and transferred it to clay. I also screen printed glazed elements and pieces of actual prints, and some of the clay pieces are made from relief block impression. All the work is the result of playing, mixing and matching different materials to create a small installation piece." In its third year, Clay Review is an annual invitational survey of contemporary ceramic works. Clay Review 3 includes artists approaching ceramics from a variety of methods ranging from wood firing to video work. Invited artists were asked to include work that showcased their ability to manipulate traditional means to their contemporary ends. Francesca Baldarelli is a graduate student in printmaking with an assistantship. She currently teaches Introduction to Printmaking and assists in Color Theory. She has assisted in Drawing II and Intro to Printmaking. She will present her MA thesis exhibition in February 2017 at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on UA campus. Baldarelli received the BFA, cum laude, in painting and printmaking from Youngstown State University in 2012. She attended the Chautauqua Institution School of Art in Chautauqua, NY, in 2014 and the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice in 2010. She received a UA College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Council Fellowship in 2015, the CISA Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institute Scholarship in 2014. At YSU, Baldarelli received a four-year American Legion Auxiliary Scholarship, a Study Abroad Grant, Venice, Italy, in 2010 and the Student Art Association Painting Award in 2009. For more information about the graduate programs in art at The University of Alabama, please go to: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/.