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‘Apophenia:’ Kelly Shannon MFA Thesis Exhibition

Graduate student Kelly Shannon will present her MFA thesis exhibition at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center during December. Titled apophenia, the display will be open to the public Dec. 2, 2016 – Jan. 6, 2017, in The Arts Council Gallery. An opening reception will be held on Dec. 2 from 5-8 p.m. during First Friday.

Kelly Shannon currently teaches design, drawing, and ceramics at Stillman College where she has also taught sculpture and art history. After graduating from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in 2005, Shannon graduated cum laude from the University of Montevallo in 2010 with a BFA in sculpture and BS in mathematics.

Work by Kelly Shannon, MFA exhibition 2016 Kelly Shannon, crescente, 2013 Work by Kelly Shannon, MFA exhibition 2016

Kelly Shannon Kelly Shannon MA exhibition, Harrison Galleries

Shannon has had solo exhibitions at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery (her MA show, crescente), Harrison Galleries (reticulum, 2014) and at Montevallo University’s Bloch Hall Gallery (in situ, 2010) as well as numerous regional and national group exhibitions. Her awards include a UA Graduate Council Fellowship and a UA Research and Travel Grant.

For more information about the artist, visit www.kellybshannon.com

Artist’s Statement
My current work deals with aggregation and the underlying structure necessary to organize large numbers of small units with endless variety. At any scale, these units follow laws and patterns for how they interact, connect, or disperse. Apophenia, the tendency to seek patterns in random or chaotic sets (such as finding shapes in clouds or constellations) is a coping mechanism for grappling with the incomprehensible. Mankind grasps only a sliver of the continuum between infinite and infinitesimal, but I welcome the struggle and challenge of expanding my own understanding of these scales. 

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 on the graduate programs of the UA department of art and art history, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/.

Visit tuscarts.org/firstfriday_artnight to view a list of Tuscaloosa galleries open during First Friday.

The Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center is located at 620 Greensboro Avenue in downtown Tuscaloosa. For more information about The Arts Council, Bama Theatre or CAC, patrons should LIKE the Facebook page “The Arts Council – Bama Theatre – Cultural Arts Center” and follow @tuscarts on Twitter. Call 205-758-5195 or visit tuscarts.org for further information.