The UA Department of Art and Art History and the department’s printmaking area present the exhibition Derek Cracco: Love Songs, February 3-14, 2014, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery, Woods Hall. Derek Cracco will lecture on his work Monday, February 17 at 3:30 pm, in Garland 208.
This show draws on several bodies of work including From Here to There and Love Songs. Works in From Here to There use collaged ephemera, such as romance novels, fifties pinups, and men’s health magazines to explore society’s fantasies and fascination with romance. The imagery challenges the viewer to consider the ideals promoted by these pulp publications, and to compare them with the realities of their own lives and concepts of romantic love. Love Songs uses similar imagery and media, combined with painted star clusters and celestial skyscapes, to explore relationships as seen through the filter of pop culture. These works explore the way consumer print media portrays the sexes, assigning them specific attributes that conform to social stereotypes and dreams of “the perfect partner.”
Derek Cracco is associate professor of printmaking and computer graphics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He received an MFA from Syracuse University in 1999 and BFA from Louisiana State University in 1996. Cracco has participated in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally including Digital Printmaking Now at the Brooklyn Museum of Art curated by Marilyn Kushner; the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts Juried Annual in Loveladies, NJ, curated by Darsie Alexander, Assistant Curator Museum of Modern Art; and Printwork 99, Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, juried by Claire Bell, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Guggenheim Museum, NY.
For more information, contact Sarah Marshall, smarsh@bama.ua.edu; 348-1900.
The Sella-Granata Art Gallery is located in 109 Woods Hall in the heart of The University of Alabama campus and open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except when we are installing a new show.