Jamaican artist Cosmo Whyte will give a talk titled, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," about his multidisciplinary practice on Thursday, April 13 in Gorgas 205, 7:00 p.m. Whyte employs drawing, performance and sculpture to create conceptual work that explores how notions of identity are disrupted by migration. His visit is sponsored by The Kirby Endowment and the Department of Art and Art History. Whyte describes himself and his work: "I situate my work in the liminal space between early culture shock and final acclimatization. My creative process begins through the interrogation of my own (racialized as black, gendered as man) body, and the personal memories that are embedded within it. I use this archive as my entry point into collective political interrogations." Assistant Professor Jane Cassidy, who organized Whyte's visit, encourages visitors from several disciplines to attend the lecture. "His work is so relevant to the current political climate and innovative in the manner he speaks to immigration. He speaks on pertinent issues in an encompassing and welcoming fashion that only further draws his audience into his work and ideas." More about Whyte here: http://www.cosmowhyte.com/. For more information, contact Jane Cassidy jcassidy@ua.edu.
UA Art and Art History Hosts 22nd Graduate Symposium
Graduate students from UA and around the country will present their research at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at The University of Alabama on March 3, 2017. Art history grad students from UA, UAB and from institutions including George Washington University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Georgia, will present papers at UA's Bryant Conference Center. In addition, this year, undergraduate students in art history have been invited to present research in a poster session. After prizes for Best Paper and Best Poster are awarded, Dr. Kristin Schwain, Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri, will give the keynote address at 3:45 p.m. Schwain's talk is titled, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club.” This year’s symposium is generously supported by the College of Continuing Studies; Robert Olin, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Tricia McElroy, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Roger Sidje, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; The University of Alabama Graduate School; The Kirby Endowment (Department of Art and Art History), the Department of American Studies, and Harrison Galleries LLC. Download this year's program here (PDF). Issuu.com version here. Photos: Flickr.com | Facebook.com | List of presenters and award winners Now in its 22nd year, the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History provides a forum for the presentation of graduate student research drawn from all areas of art history. The symposium also features a keynote lecture by a leading scholar of art history. Previous speakers have included Paul Barolsky (Italian Renaissance art), Allison Kettering (Dutch Baroque art), Michael Yonan (18th-19th century European art), and Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. The symposium alternates campuses each year. The Master of Arts degree in art history is offered jointly by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The MA degree in art history prepares students for further academic study at the doctoral level or for professional careers in teaching, museums, galleries and other arts-related fields. Students may enroll on either campus and must take at least 6 hours of course work on the other campus. Contact: Dr. Lucy Curzon, Director of Graduate Studies, lcurzon@ua.edu, (205) 348-6458.
Kristin Schwain to Keynote Art History Symposium at UA
Dr. Kristin Schwain, Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri, will give the keynote address at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at UA on March 3, 2017. Schwain's talk at 3:45 p.m. is titled, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club.” The symposium, a shared production of the departments of art and art history at The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will take place this year at the Bryant Conference Center on UA's campus. Schwain will discuss African American artist Samuel Albert Countee (1909-1959), focusing on a mural he painted for the Black Officers' Club at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri in the 1940s. She asserts that the mural is a powerful expression of African American equality and distinctiveness in an era and place marked by racism and segregation. Schwain writes that Countee’s academic style and visual references to Greek democracy and the Christian tradition underscore middle-class values shared by European and African Americans alike, while his choice of specific images in the painting underscore black contributions to American life. Schwain received the PhD from Stanford and is Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She won critical praise for her book Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age from Cornell University Press. Schwain has been guest curator at the Museum of Art and Archaeology, Columbia, Missouri, for several exhibitions including most recently, "Mendive, Chaco, and the Havana Renaissance." Schwain describes her research: "[It] seeks to complicate the story of American modernism by showcasing that the roots of the twentieth-century art world are mired in the complexities of lived experience and visual culture. I do so by examining the roles played by religion, race, region, and consumption in art’s production, display, and reception." Schwain will speak at 3:45 p.m., rounding out a full day of research presentations by graduate students from UA, UAB and from institutions around the country, including George Washington University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Georgia. This year, undergraduate students in art history have been invited to present their research in a poster session. Prizes for Best Paper and Best Poster will be awarded just before the keynote speaker's address. This year’s symposium is generously supported by the College of Continuing Studies; Robert Olin, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Tricia McElroy, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Roger Sidje, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; The University of Alabama Graduate School; the Kirby Endowment (Department of Art and Art History); the Department of American Studies; and Harrison Galleries, LLC. Download this year's program here (PDF). Now in its 22nd year, the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History provides a forum for the presentation of graduate student research drawn from all areas of art history. The symposium also features a keynote lecture by a leading scholar of art history. Previous speakers have included Paul Barolsky (Italian Renaissance art), Allison Kettering (Dutch Baroque art), Michael Yonan (18th-19th century European art), and Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. The symposium alternates campuses each year. The Master of Arts degree in art history is offered jointly by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The MA degree in art history prepares students for further academic study at the doctoral level or for professional careers in teaching, museums, galleries and other arts-related fields. Students may enroll on either campus and must take at least 6 hours of course work on the other campus. Contact: Dr. Lucy Curzon, Director of Graduate Studies, lcurzon@ua.edu, (205) 348-6458. Image credit: Samuel Albert Countee (1909-1959), mural, Black Officers’ Club, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Image courtesy of Kristin A. Schwain.
Mel Kendrick to Exhibit and Lecture on Woodblock Prints
The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art presents Mel Kendrick: Woodblocks, the Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Exhibition for 2017. The nationally acclaimed artist will be on campus to give a presentation on Tuesday, February 21 at 7:00 p.m. in 205 Gorgas Library on The University of Alabama campus. The lecture and the exhibition are free and open to the public. The opening reception for the exhibition is Thursday, March 2, at 5:00-7:00 p.m. in 103 Garland Hall. Mel Kendrick is well known for his geometry-based sculpture created in wood and concrete. The exhibition features large-scale woodblock prints that Kendrick created in the 1990s, monumental prints that assert the presence of wood within their organic, mysterious lexicon. Art critic Donald Kuspit writes: “…wood grain signifies the organic – earthy, bodily – root of the creative process.” Mel Kendrick has exhibited at Mary Boone Gallery, New York; The Drawing Room, East Hampton; Madison Square Park; Grand Arts. Kansas City; Monumental Prints, Tampa; University of the Arts, Philadelphia; Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; Artist Space, New York; and Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston. Kendrick has received the Academy Award for Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Francis J. Greenburger Award and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. He is represented in numerous public collections including: Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN This exhibition is supported by the Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Exhibition Fund. Admission to the gallery is free. Hours are Monday through Friday 9:00 – 4:30 p.m., Thursday evenings: 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 103 Garland Hall in the heart of the UA campus on Woods Quad. 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. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891.
Renown Woodworker to Speak at UA
[This press release has been updated.] The Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series presents woodworker and jewelry maker Kimberly Winkle for demonstrations and an artist talk at UA this month. Thursday, February 23, 9 am-noon, Winkle will give a wood shop demonstration in Woods Hall 104. On Thursday afternoon, attendees are invited to meet the artist, 3-5 pm, in the Birmingham and Central Bank rooms at the Bryant Conference Center. On Friday, February 24, 1-3 pm, she will give an artist talk on "What It Takes to Be an Artist" in Woods Hall 115. And on Saturday February 25, 10-11:30 am, she will give a milk paint demonstration and discussion in David Paterson's wood shop. Kimberly Winkle is Associate Professor of Art at Tennessee Technological University. She received the BFA in ceramics from the University of Oklahoma and the MFA in furniture design from San Diego State University. Winkle has taught at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Anderson Ranch Art Center, The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, John C. Campbell Folk School and the Appalachian Center for Craft. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including SOFA Chicago, Wanted Design NYC and the Architectural Digest Home Show. Her work has been included in a number of publications, including Fine Woodworking, Woodworker, and Woodworker West magazines and the books 500 Tables, 500 Chairs, Fine Woodworking Design Book 8, among others. Winkle has completed several artist residencies, including the International Turning Exchange (I.T.E.) at the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, the Windgate Artist Residency at State University New York (SUNY) Purchase, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and at the Appalachian Center for Craft. She has been awarded 4 Niche awards, a State of Tennessee Individual Artist Award in 2011 and the Society of Arts and Crafts (Boston) John D. Mineck furniture fellowship in 2014. Winkle's website is here. Schedule of Events THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 9 a.m.-12 noon. Wood Shop Demo, Woods Hall 104 (corrected time and location) 3-5 p.m. Wine and Cheese Meet and Greet with Focus on Jewelry, Bryant Conference Center, Birmingham and Central Bank rooms FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 1-3 p.m. Artist Talk “What It Takes to Be an Artist” Woods Hall 115 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 10-11:30 a.m. Milk Paint Demo and Discussion, David Paterson’s wood shop The Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist Committee, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Continuing Studies at The University of Alabama. Contact: Professor Craig Wedderspoon: craig.wedderspoon@ua.edu or (205) 348-1898.
Acclaimed Photographer Deborah Luster to Speak at UA
Artist and photographer Deborah Luster will give a public lecture, "Archive of Lamentations," on Wednesday, February 22 in the Birmingham Room of the Bryant Conference Center at 6:30 p.m. Photography has done powerful things for Luster. Since the 1990s, she has used photography, installation and text to investigate her ongoing relationship with violence and its consequences. In 1988, her mother was murdered by a contract killer, and as a way of coping, Luster found herself looking through the lens. Luster is best known for the series, One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, a collaborative work with poet C. D. Wright. The collection of photographic portraits portrays prisoners from three Louisiana prisons including the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. A short NPR video about Luster's work is here. Deborah Luster's work has been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago; Prospect.1, New Orleans; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Ballroom Marfa; David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI; and Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR; among other venues. Luster’s awards include the Dorothea Lange—Paul Taylor Prize for Documentary Photography from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (with C. D. Wright); Anonymous Was a Woman Award; among many others. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, New Orleans Museum of Art and other notable public and private collections. Deborah Luster's public lecture is sponsored by UA Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Art and Art History's Visiting Artist Committee, photography and digital media areas; the College of Arts & Sciences; the Summersell Center for the Study of the South; and the College of Continuing Studies.
Artists to Speak on Their Work in Sella-Granata Gallery
Jim Graham and Laura Tanner Graham will talk about their art work in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on Thursday, January 26 at 4:00 p.m., the closing day of their exhibition. Paintings by Jim Graham and mixed media drawings Laura Tanner Graham are on display in the Sella-Granata in conjunction with an exhibition of prints by artist and educator Morgan Price. The Grahams’ exhibition is titled The Carrot And The Stick. Laura Tanner Graham’s mixed media drawings and installations explore the history of pattern and printed textiles and the ways in which they reflect social and political agendas. Jim Graham’s current paintings explore the role of mimicry, specifically, he points out, by working with subject matter that mimics the process by which the painting was made. The two exhibitions will run through January 26, 2017. View the exhibition images on Flickr.com Laura Tanner Graham received the MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the BFA from Florida State University. She has exhibited nationally in both group and solo exhibitions including the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Athens Institute of Contemporary Art. She has been a visiting artist at Tulane University and Western Illinois University. In 2016, Graham was awarded a fellowship and residency at the Ucross Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. Her website is here. Jim Graham lives with his wife, artist Laura Tanner Graham, in Covington, Louisiana, where he is a full-time instructor of painting and drawing at Southeastern Louisiana University. Graham’s work has been presented and discussed in public forums throughout the country, most recently as a 2015 Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant nominee. Recent exhibitions include group shows at the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago, the Ten Gallery in New Orleans and solo exhibitions at the Joan Derryberry Art Gallery of Tennessee Technical University and the Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans, which represents Graham’s work. His website is here. The artists' gallery talk is sponsored by the UA Department of Art and Art History, the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department's Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series. 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 free. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 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/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
Curator to Speak on Contemporary Art World
The Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series is pleased to present Contemporary Art Curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi. Al-Khudhairi will speak at two events on UA campus on February 9 and 10, 2017. Al-Khudhairi specializes in modern and contemporary art from the Arab world and is a curator at the Birmingham Museum of Art. She will speak at the Bryant Conference Center on Feb. 9, 6-7 p.m. in the Birmingham Room. The title of this lecture-discussion is "Curating Contemporary Art." On Friday, Feb. 10 at 1:30 p.m., Al-Khudhairi will speak in 203 Garland Hall in Woods Quad. The title of her lecture will be "Exploring The Ecology of the Art World." ABOUT WASSAN AL-KHUDHAIRI Wassan Al-Khudhairi is the Hugh Kaul Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. She holds a Master of Arts with Distinction in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Georgia State University. Al-Khudhairi was previously Co-Artistic Director at the Gwangju Biennale Foundation in South Korea, where she collaborated on the curation of the ninth edition of the Gwangju Art Biennale. Al-Khudhairi has lectured around the world on the subject of modern and contemporary art, specifically related to the Middle East. Other past experience includes positions at the Brooklyn Museum and the High Museum of Art. The Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist Committee, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Continuing Studies at The University of Alabama. For information about the Bryant Conference Center lecture, call the College of Continuing Studies Dean’s Office at 205-348-6330. For information about the Garland Hall lecture, call Rachel Dobson, communications specialist, 348-1893.
UA Alumni to Speak on Activism in Art
The UA Department of Art and Art History cordially invites everyone to a public lecture by artist James Emmette Neel, in conjunction with his exhibition in the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. Neel will speak on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. in Gorgas Library 205 on UA campus. On the same day at 5 p.m., a reception for the artist will be in the SMGA, 103 Garland Hall. During the summer of 2014, Neel lived for a month on the Turkish/Syrian border. In his lecture, Echoes Along the Syrian Border: Family Archeology and the Sound of Distant Gunfire, he will discuss his experiences and his commitment as an artist to addressing the plight of children in the Syrian crisis and those children victimized by violence in other areas of conflict. The lecture accompanies the opening of the exhibition by the same title in the SMGA. The objects in that exhibition span a four-year period and include works begun in a 2016 four-month John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/Industry Residency. Neel is concurrently at work on these long-term projects: Blond, Blue-eyed and Full of Hate: through photography, sculpture and the written word, investigates the growing White Christian Heritage movement and the KKK in the US with Professor Steve Cole. Children in the Line of Fire: a series of digital prints, creative non-fiction and terra-cotta sculptures of children that address the plight of children in war zones. Concomitant: sculpture in vitreous china that speaks for the children of Syria. Appointed Professor of Art at Birmingham-Southern College in 2016, where he has served as Chair and Director of the Durbin Gallery, Jim Neel was Chair of the Visual Arts Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts from 1973-2002. He received a BFA in sculpture from Birmingham-Southern in 1971 and the MFA in sculpture from The University of Alabama in 1973.