Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present Manifestations, the master of fine arts exhibition of John Klosterman IV, March 21-28, 2019, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. There will be a closing reception for the artist, Thursday, March 28, 5-8 p.m.
John Klosterman is a native of Daphne, Alabama. Growing up, he developed a fondness for machines and the tinkering that came along with them. His life-long love of tinkering now takes on a two-dimensional form in the physical process of printmaking. Instead of the turn of a wrench, he notes, it is now the carving of a block with a gouge. Layers of each print, much like parts of a car, are assembled in a manner that creates a functioning vehicle for the message of each piece. In his current body of work for his final MFA thesis exhibition, Klosterman confronts and examines his mental health issues, specifically anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, through imagery and the process of making art:
“I use vultures and various birds of prey to depict the omnipresent oppressive feeling of my anxiety. They hover above my head and glare at me from the shadows as they wait for me to fail. I use family photographs and chemically transferred landscapes to hint at its possible origins. My appropriation of these captured moments allows me to revisit places or relationships that were a part of my upbringing. I print repetitive frame-by-frame stills and exhaustingly detailed diagrams over objects and landscapes. These transparent diagrams represent my struggle with obsessive compulsive thoughts.”
Klosterman received the BFA from the University of South Alabama in 2015, with a major in printmaking and a minor in interdisciplinary studies. In 2017, he presented a gallery talk about his art work and practice.
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 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.
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 always free.
Hours are Monday through Wednesday 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-2 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/. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or visit: https://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.