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 12 – October 12, 2017. A reception for the artists will be held Thursday, September 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the gallery at 109 Woods Hall.
New students Katie Adams (sculpture), Jude Anogwih (painting), Juan López-Bautista (painting) and returning students Francesca Baldarelli (printmaking), Patrick Hoban (ceramics), John Klosterman (printmaking), Tobias Layman (sculpture) and Amy Smoot (ceramics) will all have art works on display.
Several of the exhibitors presented five-minute talks about their work in the show and their practice on Tuesday, October 3.
These studio artists exemplify the discipline and determination needed to maintain a studio practice year-round, an integral part of the powerful resolve necessary to compete at a national and international level in art.
New students
- Katie Adams hails most recently from Western Kentucky University where she received the BA in art with a concentration in sculpture. Her work has been included in numerous juried and group exhibitions from Ohio to Texas. Adams demonstrated at the 2016 Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design Convention (SOFA) in Chicago. Her work consists of metal, wood and glass components. In her artist statement, Adams says that she “searches to understand and combine nature’s physical elements and systems with emotional connections.”
- Jude Anogwih holds an MA in art history from the University of Lagos, Nigeria; a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from Federal University of Technology Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, and a BA with honors from the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, in Creative Arts. Anogwih has exhibited his work in numerous international venues from Lagos, Nigeria to Yogyakarta, Indonesia to Poznan, Poland and Cape Town South Africa. Anogwih says that his works,
“interrogate the concept of identity, mobility and migration. They take the form of experimental painting/drawing, video art, installation and producing maps.” - Juan López-Bautista (painting) has a Ph.D. in plant biology from Louisiana State University and has taught for a decade in UA’s Department of Biology. Before entering the MFA program in studio art, he took courses in painting at LSU and at The University of Alabama. Excerpted from Lopez-Bautista’s artist statement: “My work explores the idea of the discovery of a self-identity…I find resonance between the current social discourses, my life as a scientist, and my condition as a Hispanic immigrant with my artwork. Elements in my painting seem to parallel this reverberation, in particular the construction of a wall, the adapting nature of primordial living shapes, and finding spiritual comfort in Mexican traditions…I visually use a wall, with an architecturally incorrect perspective and built by fear and hate to discriminate against people based on color, as a metaphor for a barrier that creates separation…There is a Mexican tradition of hanging objects on walls at home, for good luck or religious protection; I am following this tradition by hanging shorthand marks of poetry on the painted space…”
Returning students
- Francesca Baldarelli (printmaking) received the BFA, cum laude, in painting and printmaking from Youngstown State University. She has attended the Chautauqua Institution School of Art in Chautauqua, NY, and the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice. She presented her
at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs, Ga. Baldarelli received a UA College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Council Fellowship in 2015. - Patrick Hoban (ceramics) received the BFA in sculpture from Pennsylvania State University. He was juried into the 19th Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition in Kansas City, Mo., received a full scholarship to ceramic summer class at Penn Valley School with the renowned artist, Chris Staley, and received the Emerging Artist Award at Malvern Preparatory School.
- John Klosterman (printmaking) received the BFA from the University of South Alabama, with a major in printmaking and a minor in interdisciplinary studies. He is a graduate assistant in Drawing I classes.
- Tobias Layman (sculpture) creates working machines from wood and explores how machines can represent human life. He writes, “The material gives the machine a sense of mortality, a finite amount of time. Creating each gear by hand means the piece has flaws and imperfections. It will not operate perfectly every day. There is no object produced or task performed. It merely moves on its repetitive journey until its ultimate demise.” Layman received the BFA, cum laude, in ceramics, from Jacksonville State University. He presented his MA exhibition,
campus. In March 2018, Layman will present his MFA thesis exhibition at The Arts Council Gallery at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in Tuscaloosa. He has exhibited in national exhibitions including 35 Live: CoCA Member’s Show, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle; DAMNED IX, Detroit; The Big Dance Exhibit, a juried exhibition in Des Moines, Iowa; and Abstracts Art Exhibition, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, where he received an honorable mention. In 2017, Layman took third place at the KAO International Kinetic Art Competition in Boynton Beach, Fla. He is a graduate assistant, teaching courses in Ceramics I, Drawing I and 3D Design. - Amy Smoot (ceramics) received the BFA in ceramics from the University of West Georgia. She was one of three artists selected for Air Air, an artist residency where artists make art on airplanes. In the spring of 2017, she gave a 19th-century ceramics presentation at historic Lyon Hall in Demopolis, Ala. and led a “Fifty Minute Heads” workshop at the 2017 Georgia High School Clay Symposium in Carrollton, Ga. She received a UA Graduate Council Fellowship for the 2016-2017 academic year. Smoot currently serves as President of Crimson Clay.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s highly competitive graduate program in studio art, go here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/.
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. 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. Contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or go to https://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.