Tobias Layman will present his Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, Out of Order, at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in the Arts Council Gallery March 12-30, 2018. A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, March 22 from 5-8 pm. The Arts Council Gallery, located at 620 Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa, is open weekdays 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. with free admission. Layman works in kinetic sculpture created from wood, metal and found objects. Shaped like gears and other moving parts, Layman's works present a sensory experience of sound, sight, texture, as well as an experience of the art works’ imperfections. “The gears are not cast from a mold or cut with state-of-the-art technology," Layman explains, "They are created by hand. Over and over. The gears do not align perfectly and they do not spin effortlessly.” In fact, Layman says, their flaws transform them beyond the realm of machines. “The imperfections warrant a sense of mortality. Their life span is unknown, and that unpredictability helps augment them and give them life.” See videos of Tobias Layman's kinetic sculptures here. Tobias Layman is a graduate student in sculpture, with an assistantship teaching courses in Ceramics I, Drawing I and 3D Design. Layman received the BFA, cum laude, in ceramics, from Jacksonville State University in 2014. He presented his MA exhibition, Grinding Away, in February 2017 at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on UA campus. He has exhibited in national and regional exhibitions including 35 Live: CoCA Member’s Show, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA; DAMNED IX, Detroit, MI; A Different Vision, Plymouth, MA; The Big Dance Exhibit, a juried exhibition in Des Moines, IA; and Abstracts Art Exhibition, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, where he received an honorable mention. In 2017, he took third place at the KAO International Kinetic Art Competition in Boynton Beach, Florida. Layman has been a studio assistant for the Department of Art at Jacksonville State University, an assistant instructor at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, and an instructor and ceramic technician at Earthworks Pottery Studio in Rome, GA. He is a recipient of the Thames Endowed Scholarship and the Joseph and Allen Sella Endowed Scholarship at UA. 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: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/. The Arts Council Gallery is open weekdays 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. with free admission. The Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center is located at 620 Greensboro Avenue in Downtown Tuscaloosa. For more information about the CAC, The Arts Council or Bama Theatre, 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.
Graduate Students Exhibit MFA Thesis Research at the SMGA
The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibitions of Kelsey Windham and Celestia Morgan, April 21-May 26, 2017, in the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. Windham’s exhibition, Walked and Waited, and Morgan’s exhibition, Red Line, will open with a reception on Friday, April 21 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Celestia Morgan pursues research in racially-based housing discrimination in her native Birmingham. The residue of redlining continues to haunt the city’s black neighborhoods. Morgan traces the data of mapping with her photography: “My personal history and geographical location have heavily influenced my current body of work. My relationship to Birmingham, Alabama, is a very personal one, for both my family and me. It’s the place where my grandparents raised their children, my parents raised me, and now where my husband and I are raising our two children. My work explores the racial histories of Birmingham from the development of interstate 20/59 to the historical residential security maps created by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) during the 1930s on residential mortgages.” Morgan's work is also currently on exhibit at the Mobile Mobile Museum of Art in Alabama Contemporary Photography. She received the BFA in photography from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the associate degree in elementary education from Lawson State Community College. Kelsey Windham translates her observations and responses to the outdoors into paintings and poetry. Commenting on her work, “I am drawn to the solitude that can be experienced outside. There is a spirituality to stillness and an intimacy to painting landscapes.” Windham earned the Bachelors of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in drawing from Memphis College of Art in 2011. In 2010 she was awarded the Hohenberg Fellowship to study painting in Umbria, Italy and participated in a group show there. Windham was listed among Southern Living’s The Daily South’s “Southern Artists to Follow on Instagram Now” in 2016. 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: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/. 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. Contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/smga/.
“Abject of Desire” – Joani Inglett MFA Exhibition
Graduate student Joani Inglett will present her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Abject of Desire, March 23-30, 2017, at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Woods Hall on UA campus. The public is invited to a reception for the artist, Thursday, March 30, 4-6 p.m. Joani Inglett is a ceramic artist from Athens, Georgia. She received a BFA in ceramics from Kennesaw State University. She said that in her art work, she "now explores the limits of material through trial and error." Inglett has participated in invitational and juried exhibitions around the country and was awarded a fellowship to Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, Gatlinburg, Tenn. She is a member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. 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: http://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 http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
“This Then This:” Sydney Ewerth MFA Exhibition
Graduate student Sydney Ewerth will present her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, This Then This, March 1-10, 2017, at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Woods Hall on UA campus. The public is invited to an Art Night reception for the artist, Thursday, March 2, 4-6 p.m. Atlanta native Sydney Ewerth received her BFA with a concentration in sculpture and ceramics from Augusta University (formerly Georgia Regents University) in Augusta, Ga. During her candidacy for the MFA at the University of Alabama, she has taught and assisted classes on various topics in ceramics and drawing. In the summer of 2016, she attended a two-week ceramics workshop at the Oxbow School of Art in Michigan. She also apprenticed under artist Amy Pleasant. In 2015, Ewerth was juried into five ceramics exhibitions from New York state to Louisiana. She won an honorable mention in the Lux Center for the Arts’ Mug Shots Juried Exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is a member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and UA’s Crimson Clay Club. Ewerth's art website is here. 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: http://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 http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
MFA Exhibition Explores Adoptive Child’s Experience
UA graduate student in studio art Liam Ward will present his Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, titled 24, at the Harrison Galleries, February 28-March 19, 2017. A First Friday reception for the artist will be Friday March 3 from 6-9 pm. In the images of 24, Ward, who is an adopted child with no information about his birth parents, explores an inner world where he combines fantasy and experience. In his exhibition statement, he writes, "The idea of having no knowledge of the most profound moment of my life, my own creation, is a terrifying and somewhat humorous experience. I am creating family history of a family I have no knowledge of, while at the same time projecting my own experiences from my adolescent years onto them." The images on exhibit are only an excerpt - "a single frame" - of Ward's imagined world. Because the viewer also has limited knowledge, Ward expects that the viewer will participate by filling in the parts we don't know with our own projections, much like Ward's own experience of his birth parents. In that way, he wants "to make the viewer aware of the fiction involved within these images and realize what it means to be a parent and a child." Liam Ward received the BFA in studio art from State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 2013, graduating with honors. Ward was a teaching assistant at the Maine Media Workshops, Camden, Maine, at SUNY Plattsburgh and at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa. He participated in the SPE South Central Conference Exhibition in Oklahoma City, Okla., in 2015. Recent publications include American Spirit, BOAAT and in Photographers Forum , in which he was a finalist in their Best of Photography Contest in 2016. He is a member of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) and serves as a graduate ambassador for UA’s Graduate School. 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: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/. Harrison Galleries hosts a First Friday jazz reception from 6-9 pm on the first Friday of the month in downtown Tuscaloosa. Harrison Galleries is located at 2315 University Boulevard and is open Monday through Friday, 12 noon to 5:00 pm, and by appointment: (205) 464-0054.
‘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. 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: http://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.
“After Eighteen Forty Two” – Sarah Ann Austin MFA Thesis Exhibition
Exhibition: After Eighteen Forty Two - Works by Sarah Ann Austin - MFA Thesis Exhibition Dates: May 6-19, 2016 Where: Harrison Galleries, 2315 University Boulevard, Tuscaloosa Reception: Friday, May 6, 6-9 p.m., Harrison Galleries (First Friday) The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to announce Sarah Ann Austin's MFA thesis exhibition, After Eighteen Forty Two - Works by Sarah Ann Austin, May 6-19, 2016, at Harrison Galleries in downtown Tuscaloosa. There will be a reception on First Friday, May 6, 6-9 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend. The exhibition will highlight Austin's most recent investigations with cyanotype photograms, handmade paper and other alternative image-making practices. Sarah Ann Austin teaches beginning darkroom photography, intermediate photography and advanced photography as a graduate assistant in the UA Department of Art and Art History. She received her BFA in photography from the University of Michigan. Two of Austin's photographs were accepted into the 2015 SPE Combined Caucus Juried Exhibition at the Society of Photographic Education Conference, Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, in March of 2015, juried by Deborah Willis and Carol McCusker. Austin received an SPESC Student Scholarship Award at the Regional Conference of the Society for Photographic Education in October 2014, where her photograph strung was also exhibited at the members’ exhibition. Her work was chosen for the 2015 Joyce Elaine Grant Photography Exhibition at Texas Woman’s University juried by April Watson, curator of photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. More of her work is here. Harrison Galleries is located at 2315 University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa and is open Monday through Friday, 12 noon to 5:00 pm, and by appointment: (205) 464-0054. The thesis 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 our graduate programs, visit this link: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/.
Turner Williams MFA Thesis Exhibition
Exhibition: New Paintings & Performances: Turner Williams Master of Fine Arts Exhibition Dates: April 18-May 1, 2016 Dates for Performances: April 20-28, April 30, May 1 Where: Sella-Granata Art Gallery, 109 Woods Hall, UA Campus Reception: Thursday, April 21, 5-8 p.m., with special performance at 7:30 pm, Sella-Granata Art Gallery The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present Turner Williams' MFA thesis exhibition April 18-May 3 in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Woods Hall on UA campus. There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 21, 5-7 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend. Williams' thesis exhibition includes almost daily performances of his own and other performance artists in the gallery (see schedule below). They will run from April 20 through April 28 and again on April 30 and May 1. Internationally noted improvisational artists LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams will be among the musicians performing. Turner Williams' artist statement: This work explores the antipodes of painting and performance, analogue and digital, flatness and immersion. New process paintings converse with wall sculptures, video feedback and sound. My MFA thesis exhibition is a residency within the Sella-Granata Art Gallery with daily improvisations and meditations on the unity of opposites and creative confusion. Birmingham native Turner Williams earned a BFA in drawing and printmaking from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts of Washington University in St. Louis in 2008. He exhibited at Kerry Schuss & Mountainfold in New York City and Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn, N.Y. His work is on permanent public display at the Birmingham Southern Ecoscape project in Tarrant, Ala. Performance Schedule Wednesday, April 20, 4:00 pm - Max Eilbacher- Visiting Artist Talk + Sound Performance Thursday, April 21, 7:00 pm - Max Eilbacher (quad electronics) Friday, April 22, 6:00 pm - Max Eilbacher & Turner Williams Jr. (quad electronics & shahi baaja) Saturday, April 23, 6:00 pm - Magicicada & Dux (electronics & cello) Sunday, April 24, 6:00 pm - William T. Dooley (strings) Monday, April 25, 6:00 pm - Holland Hopson (electronics & banjo) Tuesday, April 26, 6:00 pm - Shea Stevenson (homemade instruments and devices) Wednesday, April 27, 6:00 pm - Jasper Lee (hammer dulcimer) Thursday, April 28, 7:00 pm - Rodger Stella (theremin & synthesizer) Saturday, April 30, 7:30 pm - Andrew Dewar & Brad Davis (reeds & electronics) Sunday, May 1, 7:30 pm - LaDonna Smith (viola), Davey Williams (guitar), Gerard Assayag (laptop) and Andrew Dewar (reeds) The performances are thanks to generous support from The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History paintingand digital media areas. For more information on the exhibition and performances, contact Turner Williams: tbwilliams6@crimson.ua.edu, or Rachel Dobson: rachel.dobson@ua.edu. A thesis exhibition is one of the requirements for the successful completion of the Master of Arts program. For more information about the graduate programs of the UA Department of Art and Art History, visit these links: http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/. GALLERY VISITOR PARKING ON UA CAMPUS The Campus Drive Parking Deck at the corner of Hackberry Lane and Campus Drive provides visitor parking at a nominal cost, and is only a five-minute walk to Garland and Woods halls. Buses also run on varying schedules from the deck. To walk to Woods Quad from the parking deck, exit the main doors of the parking deck and cross Hackberry Lane southwest to Margaret Drive. Follow Margaret Drive to Capstone Drive, which runs between Gorgas Library and Garland Hall. Follow Capstone Drive to Garland Hall and the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, and to Woods Hall and the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. For more information on bus schedules, go to http://crimsonride.ua.edu/
Joshua Whidden MFA Thesis Exhibition
Exhibition: Intersections: Joshua Whidden MFA Thesis Exhibition Dates: April 1-16, 2016 Where: Harrison Galleries, 2315 University Boulevard, Tuscaloosa Reception: Friday, April 1, 6-9 p.m., Harrison Galleries (First Friday) The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased to announce Joshua Whidden's MFA thesis exhibition, Intersections, April 1-16, at the Harrison Galleries in downtown Tuscaloosa. There will be a reception Friday, April 1, 6-9 pm (First Friday). The public is cordially invited to attend. Intersections features paintings which explore expressive gesture and the relationship gesture has with written language. Whidden says, "Rather than communicating a specific literal meaning as with words, the gesture can communicate a more complex array of emotions and feelings that can be interpreted in different ways by the viewer. They are the direct result of the physical act of a specific human being at a specific time and place." Whidden also links the gestures he creates in his paintings to our current way of life: "The dense and chaotic nature of these paintings also references our twenty-first century experience of being subjected to a proliferation of imagery, information and digital correspondence. The interconnected and overlapped lines of gesture in the work speak to our current state of digital interconnectedness and the interconnected nature of all things." Joshua Whidden received his BFA in studio art with a concentration in painting from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida, in 2011. During his time at The University of Alabama, Whidden has assisted multiple classes in printmaking and painting and has taught Drawing I and Beginning Painting. In 2015 he presented his paper, “Paths of Painting,” on SECAC’s Newest Generation of Artist Educators panel in Pittsburgh, PA. He was awarded the Alvin C. and Joseph Sella Endowed Scholarship for 2014-15, "in recognition of exemplary dedication and commitment to academic achievement." Harrison Galleries is located at 2315 University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa and is open Monday through Friday, 12 noon to 5:00 pm, and by appointment: (205) 464-0054. Image credit: Joshua Whidden, Redact. Image courtesy of the artist. The thesis 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: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/.