Tuscaloosa, Ala. — New and returning graduate studio art students in The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History will exhibit recent work in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery September 4-27, 2018. On Thursday, September 6, beginning at 4 pm, each student will present a 5-minute talk about their work, followed by a reception for the artists, in the gallery at 109 Woods Hall. The reception on September 6 will be one of two during Art Night on Woods Quad, including an exhibition reception at the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, 5-7 p.m. New students Sarah Dittmann (printmaking), Kelsey Meadows (ceramics), Amber Quinn (photography), Chris Byrd (sculpture) and returning students Katie Adams (sculpture), Jude Anogwih (painting), Nasrin Iravani (ceramics), Juan López-Bautista (painting), Patrick Hoban (ceramics), John Klosterman (printmaking), and Amy Smoot (ceramics) will all have art works on display. Join us September 6 for an exciting afternoon as students reveal what they have been working on in their art over the summer! For more information about UA Department of Art and Art History programs, click here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/.
Two Receptions Hosted for September Art Night
Start your semester off with a double-feature Art Night on Woods Quad! The UA Department of Art and Art History will host two receptions in our two Woods Quad art galleries, Thursday, September 6, beginning at 4 p.m. and lasting until 7 p.m. At 4 p.m., in Woods Hall, the Sella-Granata Art Gallery hosts a reception for our annual Graduate Student Exhibition, showcasing work by our current and new graduate students in studio art. Works presented will be in ceramics, digital media, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture, and each student will present a 5-minute talk on their work beginning at 4 p.m. A reception for the artists will follow and be open until 6 p.m. Across the quad in Garland Hall, beginning at 5 p.m., the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art hosts a reception for its fall survey of the Permanent Collection, Com-bine. Works in this exhibition are from the Farley Moody Galbraith Collection, the Morgan Collection, the William and Sara Hall Collection and other generous gifts of artwork. The reception will go on until 7 p.m. Join us for Art Night in the historic heart of UA campus. Stroll between galleries through the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden with six outdoor sculptures, including a new one in Garland Hall's backyard by marketing major and studio art minor Paget Kern. Sarah Moody Gallery of Art Sella-Granata Art Gallery Historic Woods Quad is a five-minute walk from the Campus Drive Parking Deck and Bus Hub on Hackberry Lane. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, go here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/.
UA Graduate Student Paints “The Immigrant Life”
UA graduate student in painting and professor of biology Juan López-Bautista has paintings on display now through August 10 at Ayers LRC Art Gallery in Anniston, Ala. The exhibition, titled "The Immigrant Life," expresses López-Bautista's ideas of the migratory life through abstract, fluid, moving shapes that allude to the most internal processes of life. In his artist statement, he writes, "Through washes, layers, and biomorphic shapes I intend to explore the development of consciousness as a result of a cultural assimilation by migration. My work is an invitation to the viewer to perceive this migratory effort. In my practice, each work is not a final product but a continuation of the previous one and itself the preceding stage for the consequent work. I envision my paintings as an evolutionary continuum, where issues of race, tolerance, immigration, separation, pursue of happiness, and survival occupies the same pictorial space." López-Bautista has a Ph.D. in plant biology from Louisiana State University and has taught for fifteen years in UA’s Department of Biology. Before entering the MFA program in studio art at UA, he took courses in painting at LSU and at The University of Alabama. The Ayers LRC Art Gallery is located on 1801 Coleman Road, at Gadsden State Community College - Ayers campus, in Anniston and is open Mon. through Thurs., 8:00 am to 7 p.m. 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.
New Sculpture in the Garden
Like an exotic flower that blooms overnight, a new sculpture has recently appeared in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Mobius and Borromean Rings was designed and created in steel by marketing major and studio art minor Paget Kern. Kern, who has taken sculpture courses for her art minor and makes jewelry at home, designed the work in a collaborative project with students in the departments of Math and Art and Art History. She linked two complex mathematical ideas together in a massive sculptural example. Kern explained that the design is “a triple Möbius strip tied together in a Borromean knot.” Kern's monumental sculpture joins a bouquet that includes work by nationally known sculptors, art faculty and former sculpture students. At the center of the garden is Craig Wedderspoon, "Quilted Vessel," 2013, cast and welded aluminum. "Montgomery Marker" by Craig Wedderspoon, in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden, UA campus Lindsay Jones Lindsey, "Fibonacci Spiral" installed in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden, 2014. Billy Lee, Homage to Brancusi, 1993, 138 x 28.5 x 12.5 inches; painted steel. Joe McCreary, "Goldie 1971," 2009, iron and steel; approx. 23 ft., in 2018, in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Read more about the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden and UA's public sculpture. Go here for more information on The University of Alabama's Department of Art and Art History.
Reed O’Mara Researches the Uta Codex
New graduate student in art history Reed O’Mara has hit the ground running. This May, she presented her research titled “The Geometry of the Co-eternal Word in the Uta Codex,” at a special session for undergraduates at the 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the world’s largest annual gatherings of medieval scholars. Last year, while she was still a senior at UA (a double major in German and economics with a minor in art history), she developed a unique research project on the famous medieval illuminated manuscript, the Uta Codex. The Uta Codex was a gospel book or lectionary commissioned around 1025 by Abbess Uta, head of the Niedermünster Abbey in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany, and is considered one of the most significant manuscripts of its time. One of its elaborately decorated frontispieces is referred to as the “Hand of God” page. O’Mara used the texts contained in the codex, the Gospel of John, the Creation story in Genesis, and the works of St. Augustine, to interpret the complex and innovative design of this page. Although the image has been studied and written about by many learned scholars, O'Mara's idea about it is a completely original approach. She will present her research, titled “The Geometry of the Co-eternal Word in the Uta Codex,” for the first time at the 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May. O’Mara was awarded a competitive Barbato Fellowship in art history to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she will attend in the fall of 2018 as a graduate assistant with a full tuition scholarship and a stipend. In the same conference session for research by undergraduates at the 53rd International Congress at Kalamazoo, senior double major in art history and anthropology Sommer Hallquist presented her research paper, “Representing ‘Wicked’ Kingship: Images of Antichrist within Bible Moralisée Codex Vindobonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.” Hallquist is one of two recipients of the 2018 Alumni Student Award, which is given each year by the National Alumni Association. In addition, for her research, she won first prize at the UA System Honors Research Conference and 4th place in the URCA Poster Session in the Arts and Humanities Division. Hallquist also won the C. Earle Smith Memorial Award in the Department of Anthropology. She will attend Cambridge University in the United Kingdom in the fall semester. 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.
Student-curated Exhibition Showcases Artists of Color
University of Alabama students under the direction of Assistant Professor Wendy Castenell have curated an exhibition for the Paul R. Jones Museum titled Color by Color, opening May 4 with a First Friday reception in the downtown museum from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. The exhibition runs through June 29. In the exhibition text greeting visitors to the Jones Museum, the curators ask, “How many black artists can you name? How many did you study?” The aim of this new exhibit, curated by students in Dr. Castenell’s African American Art (ARH 388), is to showcase the talent of artists whose skin color was the reason they could not show their artwork. The project also gave the students a chance to learn more about these artists collected by the late Paul R. Jones. In addition, Color by Color focuses on the subject matter of artists of different cultures. According to the curators, “Color becomes a reflection of love, life and the generation of a people who’ve overcome a life of discrimination and prejudice to embrace their cultures through their art. With this theme, we see different interpretations of daily life, culture, emotions and a history of African Americans not seen before.” The students conclude, “While we are not able to change past prejudices that prevented black artists from exhibiting their work, we can now move forward to deliberately showcase their incredible skills and understand their experiences. We hope that by visiting this exhibition you will have learned a bit more about these underappreciated artists and fully experience Color by Color.” Josh Allen, Robby Bradford, Hannah Christopher, Elizabeth Essary, Megan Foster, Katie Freeman, Melissa Givens, Clay Hodge, Rachel Irvin, Jasmine James, Kailey Ketter, Alexandra Laroche, Sarah Lipshy, Lydia Mccollum, Marie Owens, Chelsea Parrish, Victoria Sadler, Rebecca Skipper, Hannah Weeks and Alex Willis are the participating student-curators. 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/. The Paul R. Jones Museum is located at 2308 6th St. in downtown Tuscaloosa. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the first Friday of every month from noon to 8 p.m. The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.
UA Art Foundry Casts Sculpture Across Alabama
Towering steel flowers, a massive mathematical loop-de-loop, larger-than-life baseball players and renown university presidents are just a few of the projects, supervised by Professor of Art Craig Wedderspoon, that have been created in the giant work bays at UA's art foundry. From Tuscaloosa to Gadsden, sculptures from the foundry find homes around the state. It takes skill and determination, caution and daring to see complex design projects grow from drawings and models to finished public sculptures. Wedderspoon and his team – foundry specialists Eric Nubbe, Joe McCreary and Ringo Lisko, as well as senior arts technicians Patrick O'Sullivan and Mike Eddins – work with strict safety standards and an inventiveness that keep all the machinery running smoothly behind those gigantic sliding garage doors on Margaret Drive. Now, a monumental new sculpture, cast in the foundry, is ready to become part of the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Mobius and Borromean Rings is designed and created by marketing major and studio art minor Paget Kern. Kern, who has taken sculpture courses for her art minor and makes jewelry at home, designed the work in a collaborative project with students in the departments of Math and Art and Art History. She linked two complex mathematical ideas together in a massive sculptural example. Kern explained that the design is “a triple Möbius strip tied together in a Borromean knot.” We’ve all seen the three inter-linked rings of a Borromean ring or knot. A Möbius strip can be made by twisting a strip of paper and adhering the ends together to create a continuous circle that is “unorientable.” If you walked along a center line on the loop, you would go around the Möbius strip twice before coming back to its starting point. The long and the short of it is that you’ll have to go see the sculpture for yourself when the giant twisted loops of welded steel sculpture are installed in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden this summer. Up north in Gadsden, alumnus and staff member Eric Nubbe's public sculpture, commissioned by Walnut Gallery on behalf of the Gadsden Public Library, has been installed in the green space in front of the library. Just in Time is 7 feet high, 5 feet wide, 7 feet long and made of steel. Nubbe is working on a second sculptural project for the City of Florence’s bicentennial celebration to be fabricated in the foundry: a 20-foot steel musician overlooking the Tennessee River. Past projects of the foundry include a statue of past UA president and UA System Chancellor Robert Witt in Presidential Plaza on UA campus; the nine-foot tall statue of Willie Mays in Regions Field; student-designed and -built bicycle racks in Alberta Park and downtown Tuscaloosa; Amaryllis and accompanying park benches by undergrads Lisko and Amber Daum in Monnish Park; and iron benches for Schoolyard Roots (Druid City Garden Project); among others. The most intensive upcoming projects are related to Tuscaloosa’s and Alabama’s Bicentennial celebrations in 2019. They were competitive commissions awarded to Tuscaloosa artist Caleb O’Connor, Wedderspoon and the foundry. For the state’s commemoration, O’Connor designed sixteen 3-foot by 2-foot high relief bronze panels depicting scenes from Alabama’s history to be cast at the foundry and paired with sixteen interpretive text panels. The entire work is scheduled for unveiling in Montgomery in December of 2019, so mark your calendars! 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.
“Utterly Useless” Digital Media Art Exhibition
You're invited to enjoy some "utterly useless" creative digital media explorations from the Department of Art and Art History! On Tuesday evening, April 24, from 7:30 to 9:00 pm, digital media students in Assistant Professor Jane Cassidy’s Digital Art Seminar, will screen several fascinating works of digital art. Dubbing themselves at semester's end, "The Utterly Useless," the students will present an interactive game and perform a live VJ set in Woods Quad. Bring a blanket or folding chair and some snacks and come watch the “movies!” Digital Media is a studio concentration in the undergraduate program of The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History that focuses on new media and digital art. Courses explore digital media as the primary tool, medium and an environment for art and design. For more information, go to http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/digital-media/. Woods Quad is located in the historic heart of The University of Alabama campus. It is a five-minute walk from the Campus Drive Parking Deck and Bus Hub on Hackberry Lane. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/.
Senior Painting Show Features ‘Canorous’ Art
Tuscaloosa, Ala. – The Painting area of the UA Department of Art and Art History presents an exhibition of work, Canorous, by four graduating seniors, April 16-19, 2018, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. The public is invited to a reception Monday, April 16, at 6 p.m. In their statement for the exhibition, artists Candace Von Hoffman, Ellen Hart, Megan Goldman and Alana Cammack said, “through our approaches to material as a means to an end, our separate voices rise in harmony to create a ‘canorous’ or resonant gathering of artworks.” “These four artists share a heightened sense of curiosity and material exploration,” said Sky Shineman, associate professor and coordinator of the exhibition. “Their conversations in the painting studio can been seen through the dialogue of their work in the gallery. Really excited to see them show together.” Candace von Hoffman is a senior BFA student concentrating in painting and photography. She combines the two respective processes to create mixed media pieces as a means to explore forms of nature, architecture and the body in reference to effeminate experiences. Ellen Hart explores materials, texture, and process to produce off-kilter compositions in her paintings. She states, “I do not strive to create perfectly balanced and executed pieces, but rather interesting explorations of layering.” She is a senior BFA student concentrating in painting and ceramics. Megan Goldman is a senior BFA student concentrating in painting and drawing. Goldman says she uses material and color “to investigate shape, form, and the interplay of light and shade. I draw inspiration from a physical piece of crumpled paper in her paintings, and a nontangible shadow in her drawings.” Alana Cammack, a senior majoring in advertising and painting, explores the boundaries between art, craft, and femininity through weaving and embroidery. Her use of fiber is deeply connected to the human desire to feel, both physically and emotionally. Image credits: top left: painting by Candace von Hoffman; top right: painting by Megan Goldman; bottom left: weaving by Alana Cammack; bottom right: mixed media work by Ellen Hart. Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/907802376046950/ For more information about the 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. 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. Contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/. Woods Quad and Woods Hall are a five-minute walk from the Campus Drive Parking Deck and Bus Hub on Hackberry Lane. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/.