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/.
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/.
Dual Exhibition Reveals Transformative Nature of Art
Exhibitions: Francesca Baldarelli: 54 Phillips Way | Tobias Layman: Grinding Away Dates: February 2-16, 2017 Where: Sella-Granata Art Gallery, 109 Woods Hall, UA campus Reception: Thursday, February 2, 4-6 p.m., Sella-Granata Art Gallery The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the Master of Arts exhibitions of Francesca Baldarelli and Tobias Layman, February 2-16, 2017, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. Layman's exhibition, titled Grinding Away and Baldarelli's exhibition, 54 Phillips Way, will have their opening reception on Thursday, February 2 from 4 to 6 p.m. Join us then to meet these artists and experience their work first hand! In her exhibition, 54 Phillips Way, Francesca Baldarelli salvages and reuses discarded or re-gifted materials. As she describes it, she combines the objects “to create curious moments of memory,” for herself and the viewer. “As time passes,” Baldarelli explains, “they transform. A crack here, a bend there, they slowly become different.” Changed, the objects move into the future, to create an open-ended experience for the artist and viewer alike. In this exhibition, Tobias Layman creates wood and metal sculptures that celebrate motion. Shaped like gears and other moving parts, Layman presents a sensory experience to the viewer, of sound, sight, texture, as well as an experience of the art works’ imperfection. “The gears are not cast from a mold or cut with state-of-the-art technology," Layman explains, "They are created by hand. Over and over. The gears do not align perfectly and they do not spin effortlessly.” In fact, Layman says, their flaws transform them beyond the realm of machines. “The imperfections warrant a sense of mortality. Their life span is unknown, and that unpredictability helps augment them and give them life.” About the Artists Tobias Layman is a graduate student in sculpture, with an assistantship teaching Ceramics I and Drawing I. Layman received the BFA, cum laude, in ceramics, from Jacksonville State University in 2014. He has exhibited in national and regional exhibitions including 35 Live: CoCA Member’s Show, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA; DAMNED IX, Detroit, MI; A Different Vision, Plymouth, MA; The Big Dance Exhibit, a juried exhibition in Des Moines, IA; and Abstracts Art Exhibition, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, where he received an honorable mention. Layman has been a studio assistant for the Department of Art at Jacksonville State University, an assistant instructor at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, and an instructor and ceramic technician at Earthworks Pottery Studio in Rome, GA. He is a recipient of the Thames Endowed Scholarship and the Joseph and Allen Sella Endowed Scholarship at UA. His art website is http://talceramics.weebly.com/. 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. Her work combining printmaking and ceramics will be in the group exhibition, Clay Review 3 at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs, GA, in January and February, 2017. She has exhibited her work in the Chautauqua Institution Student Exhibition at the Fowler Kellogg Gallery, Chautauqua, NY. Her Graduating BFA Show was held at the John J. McDonough Museum, Youngstown, OH and she has been included in several group exhibitions at Bliss Hall Gallery at Youngstown State University. 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. Her art website is http://fmbaldarelli9.wixsite.com/portfolio. A thesis exhibition is one of the requirements for the successful completion of the Master of Arts program in the UA Department of Art and Art History. For more information about our graduate programs, visit this page: http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/. GALLERY VISITOR PARKING ON UA CAMPUS The Campus Drive Parking Deck at the corner of Hackberry Lane and Campus Drive provides visitor parking at a nominal cost, and is only a five-minute walk to Garland and Woods halls. Buses also run on varying schedules from the deck. To walk to Woods Quad from the parking deck, exit the main doors of the parking deck and cross Hackberry Lane southwest to Margaret Drive. Follow Margaret Drive to Capstone Drive, which runs between Gorgas Library and Garland Hall. Follow Capstone Drive to Garland Hall and the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, and to Woods Hall and the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. For more information on bus schedules, go to http://crimsonride.ua.edu/
Haylee Walker Achieves Her Job Goal
BFA 2016 graduate Haylee Walker recently started a new job using the printmaking skills and experience she learned at UA. Walker received the bachelor of fine arts degree from UA with a primary concentration in printmaking and a secondary concentration in digital media. This fall JNJ Apparel in Northport, an automatic screen-printing shop, hired Walker as an assistant press operator. Walker said she is excited and ready to take a break from school to “experience the ‘real’ world.” The past several years have held difficult as well as rewarding challenges for the artist. Haylee’s path to UA was not her choice. She had been attending the Savannah College of Art and Design when her father passed away in 2012. After his death, tuition costs there were out of her family’s reach, said Associate Professor Sarah Marshall, who taught Walker’s printmaking courses. Then, an unlikely patron, the late Coach Paul W. Bryant, came to Walker’s rescue. Her father, Hardy Walker, had played for Coach Bryant in the 1980s and Bryant had endowed a scholarship for UA students, with priority given to the children of any of his players. According to Walker, the Paul W. Bryant Scholarship gives children of a player who is still alive a tuition scholarship, but the children of a player who has passed away receive a full scholarship, so Walker’s education was covered. Walker transferred to UA in 2012 and spent her time here immersed in her studies, while also working the last three years at Michaels arts and crafts store as a sales associate. Marshall said, “Haylee is one of the most amazing students I have had the privilege of teaching. Her enthusiasm and generosity toward her fellow students humbles me on a regular basis. She keeps exceptional sketchbooks, visual and written records of her experiences as a human being and her growth as an artist. Although shy in person, she is an avid adventurer in seeking out cultural experiences. She often drives to other cities to see underground bands play live and visit museums and galleries. She comes to almost every event our department organizes. I am so sad that we are losing her and so excited for all the good things to come in her life.” Marshall encourages students to submit their artwork to juried exhibitions. Walker did, and her print, #PizzaRat, was accepted to the 2016 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition at Arkansas State University, juried by the associate curator of prints and drawings at Minneapolis Institute of Art. As a BFA student, Walker also held a final exhibition, Gravity, with two of her BFA cohorts, Ausharea Adams and Tanika Powers, at the Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa. All three women graduated in 2016 and are making their ways in the world now. In the “real” world, Walker finds it hard to make art on a regular basis. Even keeping a daily sketchbook is difficult with a full-time job. “Creating work has been a challenge,” Walker says. Walker plans to return to school to work on her master of fine arts degree. “It is something that I would really like to do, sometime in the future, but for right now I am very excited to start my new job at JNJ Apparel and see how far that will take me. Working for a screen printing company was my job goal and to have landed this position means the world to me.” From The Loupe, the newsletter of the UA Department of Art and Art History, Fall 2016. Read more stories here and check out past issues here.