Jim Graham and Laura Tanner Graham will talk about their art work in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on Thursday, January 26 at 4:00 p.m., the closing day of their exhibition. Paintings by Jim Graham and mixed media drawings Laura Tanner Graham are on display in the Sella-Granata in conjunction with an exhibition of prints by artist and educator Morgan Price. The Grahams’ exhibition is titled The Carrot And The Stick. Laura Tanner Graham’s mixed media drawings and installations explore the history of pattern and printed textiles and the ways in which they reflect social and political agendas. Jim Graham’s current paintings explore the role of mimicry, specifically, he points out, by working with subject matter that mimics the process by which the painting was made. The two exhibitions will run through January 26, 2017. View the exhibition images on Flickr.com Laura Tanner Graham received the MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the BFA from Florida State University. She has exhibited nationally in both group and solo exhibitions including the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Athens Institute of Contemporary Art. She has been a visiting artist at Tulane University and Western Illinois University. In 2016, Graham was awarded a fellowship and residency at the Ucross Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. Her website is here. Jim Graham lives with his wife, artist Laura Tanner Graham, in Covington, Louisiana, where he is a full-time instructor of painting and drawing at Southeastern Louisiana University. Graham’s work has been presented and discussed in public forums throughout the country, most recently as a 2015 Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant nominee. Recent exhibitions include group shows at the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago, the Ten Gallery in New Orleans and solo exhibitions at the Joan Derryberry Art Gallery of Tennessee Technical University and the Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans, which represents Graham’s work. His website is here. The artists' gallery talk is sponsored by the UA Department of Art and Art History, the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department's Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series. 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 free. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 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/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
Artist Lecture: Ashlyn Pope
Department of Art and Art History exhibiting artist Ashlyn Pope will give a public lecture about her artwork and topics related to race and gender Wednesday, Nov. 2, in Garland Hall 308 at 2:00 p.m. The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Gender and Race Studies, and is in conjunction with Pope's exhibition in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery this month. Ashlyn Pope makes wheel thrown and hand built ceramic pottery that narrates her own memories and the memories of other victims of abuse through their journey of self-discovery. Her work is influenced by the culturally related and narrative properties of the African American quilt. Her work is also inspired by woodblock prints by which she uses a similar technique to produce powerful, moving images in clay. Conversations opens tomorrow, November 3, and runs through November 22 and is part of a dual exhibition with Chris Staley. Everyone is invited to the opening reception on Art Night, November 3 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the gallery, 109 Woods Hall. Ashlyn Pope is a ceramic and printmaking artist from the Atlanta area. Currently she works as an instructor in ceramics at the ART Station, a non-profit, professional arts center that brings arts to citizens of all social, cultural, ethnic, and economic standing. Pope received the BFA in ceramics and printmaking from Kennesaw State University in 2013 and the AA degree in fashion design from Bauder College in 2007. Ashlyn Pope’s visit is generously sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Gender and Race Studies and the College of Arts & Sciences. Ashlynn Pope’s website is here. Image Credits: all images courtesy of the artist Contact: Assistant Professor Matt Mitros, Chair, Sella-Granata Art Gallery: matthew.t.mitros@ua.edu or (205) 348-1889. 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 free. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 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/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
Emerging and Experienced Ceramic Artists Present Dual Show
The Sella-Granata Art Gallery presents a dual exhibition of art works by Ashlyn Pope and Chris Staley, November 3 through November 22. Everyone is invited to the opening reception on Art Night, November 3 from 4 to 6 p.m. Ashlyn Pope's exhibition is titled Conversations. Pope is a ceramic and printmaking artist from the Atlanta area. Currently she works as an instructor in ceramics at the ART Station, a non-profit, professional arts center that brings arts to citizens of all social, cultural, ethnic, and economic standing. Pope received the BFA in ceramics and printmaking from Kennesaw State University in 2013 and the AA degree in fashion design from Bauder College in 2007. More information about her work, photos of Ashlyn Pope's process with finished pieces and her website are here. Ashlyn Pope’s visit is generously sponsored by UA's Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Gender and Race Studies and the College of Arts & Sciences. Chris Staley's exhibition is titled Coming and Going. Staley is a Distinguished Professor of Art at Pennsylvania State University. He was selected to be the Penn State Laureate for 2012-2013. He received the BFA from Wittenberg University in Ohio. He was rejected by every graduate MFA program he applied to and then attended the Kansas City Art Institute for a year as a special student. He then was accepted to Alfred University and earned the MFA degree. Staley has traveled extensively as a visiting artist from Bezalel Academy in Israel to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. He has received two National Endowment of the Arts Grants. His work is in many museum collections, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of Art, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He has served on the Board of Directors at the Archie Bray Foundation and the Board of Trustees at The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. He is currently serving as President for NCECA, the National Council of Education for the Ceramic Arts. His website is here. Staley will also be presenting a lecture and workshops on UA campus. NOV 10 Visiting Artist Chris Staley events: Ceramics Workshop, Bureau of Mines #5, UA, 9:30-11:30 am Ceramics Workshop, Bureau of Mines #5, UA, 3:45 – 5:15 pm Artist Lecture by Christopher Staley, “Why Art Matters: A Potters Search for Meaning,” Bryant Conference Center, Rast Room A, 7 pm Chris Staley's visit is generously sponsored by UA's College of Arts & Sciences, College of Continuing Studies, and the Department of Art and Art History. Image Credits: all images courtesy of the artists Contact: Assistant Professor Matt Mitros, Chair, Sella-Granata Art Gallery: matthew.t.mitros@ua.edu or (205) 348-1889. 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 free. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 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/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
An Invitation to Listen: “Conversations” in Ceramic and Prints
The Sella-Granata Art Gallery presents Conversations, an exhibition of works by Ashlyn Pope, November 3 through November 22, 2016. Conversations is part of a dual exhibition with Chris Staley. Everyone is invited to the opening reception on Art Night, November 3 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the gallery, 109 Woods Hall. Ashlyn Pope makes wheel thrown and hand built ceramic pottery that narrates her own memories and the memories of other victims of abuse through their journey of self-discovery. Her work is influenced by the culturally related and narrative properties of the African American quilt. Her work is also inspired by woodblock prints by which she uses a similar technique to produce powerful, moving images in clay. Artist's statement: Through the artist's autobiographical lens, the works in this exhibition recount the hardships of a Black American child growing up in an abusive home and how the child's learning to connect to self, family and community is profoundly affected by those experiences. By examining self-history, family history and cultural history, connections and conversations are explored, opening the door to the ageless realization that we may be unable to change our past but we can alter our present and write a new future. With social tensions at an all time high, the work also aims to shed light on the causes, effects and mistruths of injustice seen through the eyes of one Black Woman -- a woman who is a continuous sufferer of delineations drawn in the sand of forward momentum established by societal fears. Ashlyn Pope is a ceramic and printmaking artist from the Atlanta area. Currently she works as an instructor in ceramics at the ART Station, a non-profit, professional arts center that brings arts to citizens of all social, cultural, ethnic, and economic standing. Pope received the BFA in ceramics and printmaking from Kennesaw State University in 2013 and the AA degree in fashion design from Bauder College in 2007. Ashlyn Pope's visit is generously sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Gender and Race Studies and the College of Arts & Sciences. Ashlyn Pope's website is here. Image Credits: all images courtesy of the artist Contact: Assistant Professor Matt Mitros, Chair, Sella-Granata Art Gallery: matthew.t.mitros@ua.edu or (205) 348-1889. 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 free. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 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/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
Artists Shape Landscapes and Story Endings of Contemporary Life
The Sella-Granata Art Gallery presents a dual exhibition featuring the work of sculptor, photographer, drawer and journalist Melissa Stern and 3D studio artist Matt Ziemke, October 6 through October 27. Everyone is invited to a reception Oct. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the gallery located in Woods Hall. Wander across Woods Quad for a second Art Night reception in the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art in Garland Hall from 5-7 p.m. With a background in anthropology, Stern's work reflects both non-Western and outsider-art influences. Her drawings, collages, and figurative sculptures are richly drawn and deeply layered, with quirky, often dark humor. Comprised of thirteen short stories, told in small, mixed-medium drawings and few words, Melissa Stern's Loose Lips, created in 2004-05, leads the viewer into a dark and funny world. The stories touch on family and other relationships. Poignant and wacky and often wicked, they are told in an uninhibited and exuberant combination of encaustic, collage, paint, charcoal, pastel and oil stick. For each story there is a choice of three endings. Viewers are asked to vote on the ending that they prefer. About her work, Stern says, “I work like a handyman cobbling together drawings and sculptures from elements found, borrowed and imagined. The drawings and sculptures, often made in tandem, resonate with one another, the ideas in one reinforcing the themes of the other.” Stern is an artist and journalist living in New York City. Stern has worked in sculpture, photography and drawing for over twenty years, exhibiting throughout the US as well as Europe and Asia. Her work is featured in a number of prominent corporate and museum collections including News Corporation, JP Morgan, The Arkansas Art Center, the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Kohler Corporation, where she was an artist-in-residence. Stern serves as a contributing writer for Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn-based digital arts publication, working at the intersection of the arts, culture, and politics. She has covered major exhibitions on assignment throughout the world. She served earlier as the principle art critic for The New York Press. She is a past Board Director of The Children’s Museum of the Arts in NYC, Watershed Center in Maine and curator of the Human Rights Film Festival from 2008-2015. Her website is here. Matt Ziemke's exhibition, What it was, what it is, and what it will be, explores the role landscapes play in contemporary American life and the development of cultural identity with large-scale wall tiles and sculpture. Ziemke writes, "Landscapes have influenced the development of cultural identities throughout history. What it was, what it is, and what it will be focuses on the various roles that landscapes play in American life today. In this exhibition a series of large-scale wall tiles and sculpture explore how perceptions of the natural world can occupy many roles including an idealized physical structure, political battleground, and cultural fetish." Ziemke received the MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia and the BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was a resident artist at The Clay Studio of Philadelphia for two years following his graduate studies. Ziemke has taught at Tyler School of Art and Indiana University Southeast. He is currently a full-time lecturer at University of Nebraska at Kearney and exhibits nationally. His website is here. 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 free. Hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 – 4:00 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/. Parking is free on campus in a legal space after business hours. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-1891 or go to http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
Visiting Artist Talks to UA Ceramics Students
Visiting artist Dennis Ritter presented a talk to ceramics students at The University of Alabama on Wednesday. Ritter is at UA in conjunction with his exhibition in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery September 8-29. Ritter is a sculptor working primarily in the ceramic medium. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and maintains an active studio practice and is an adjunct lecturer at Baton Rouge Community College. He received his MFA from the NYSCC at Alfred University in 2015. Prior to attending graduate school he worked as a teaching artist for The Claymobile Outreach Program in Philadelphia, was the Studio and Facilities Manager for The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. He received his BFA in Ceramics from the Tyler School of Art in 2012, where he received the Rudy Staffal Award for Excellence in Ceramics. Dennis has also been a resident at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and The Vermont Studio Center and was awarded a Windgate Fellowship in Craft in conjunction with The Vermont Studio Center residency program. Dennis Ritter and Knoxville, Tennessee, painter Eleanor Aldrich present a dual exhibition, September 8-29, 2016. Each artist presents a way of seeing and thus giving meaning to ordinary, everyday objects. The public is invited to a reception held September 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the gallery. Read more about the exhibition here. To learn more about our undergraduate and graduate programs in studio art and art history, visit this page: http://art.ua.edu/academics/.
Open Artist Studio: April Bachtel
April Bachtel will host an open studio on Thursday, April 28, from 5-7 p.m. in Woods Hall 119 at The University of Alabama. The public is cordially invited to come and see completed works, works in progress and the context where her art is created. Snacks and refreshments will be served. April Bachtel is a part-time instructor in the UA Department of Art and Art History. She is an object maker whose practice combines sculpture, drawing and painting. She collects, studies and reconstructs leftover items from material culture such as tatted bedsheets, broken furniture and dusty knickknacks. She transforms the secondhand into anthropomorphic, empathy-invoking forms investigating objects' histories while simultaneously providing them with a different life. She pairs familiarity and domesticity with the uncanny and grotesque to call our routines and systems into question. Bachtel teaches courses in drawing, studio foundations, 2D design and color theory in the Department of Art and Art History at UA. In 2011, she graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in painting and a BA in art education from Kent State University in Ohio. In 2014, she received the MFA in studio art from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also studied at Oxbow School of Art and Artist Residency. Her work has been exhibited at Roane State Community College in Harriman, Tennessee; Des Lee Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri; Tahoe Gallery in Incline Village, Nevada; and at Shift Space in Wichita, Kansas, among others. This summer she will be a Summer River Fellow Resident Artist at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Her website is here:http://www.aprilbachtel.com/ Immediately following the open studio, a performance by Rodger Stella (theremin & synthesizer) will take place at 7:00 pm in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery at Woods Hall as a part of Turner Williams' MFA thesis exhibition.
MFA Candidate Incorporates Improv Musicians in 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, 2016 Where: Sella-Granata Art Gallery, 109 Woods Hall, UA Campus Reception: Thursday, April 21, 5-8 p.m., with a special performance at 7:30 p.m., Sella-Granata Art Gallery As part of UA graduate student Turner Williams' MFA thesis exhibition in studio art, April 18-May 3, several visiting artists and musicians will perform April 20-28, April 30 and May 1 in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Woods Hall on UA campus. Williams' thesis exhibition includes almost daily performances of his own and other performance artists in the gallery (see schedule below). They run from April 20 through April 28 and again on April 30 and May 1, often at 6:00 p.m. Internationally noted improvisational artists LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams will be among the musicians performing. Turner Williams' statement about his work: My work is about the interpenetration of opposites, creative confusion, and the surprising order inherent in chaos. These performances present a body of work that is an antipode to my flat, static paintings. Relief wall sculpture will be processed and projected back onto itself by video feedback loops, echoing the process informs my painting. Projectors receive a live feed from video cameras. When the camera input is centered on the projectors output, the image erupts, multiplies and destabilizes. I will deploy this phenomenon as a visual instrument in love improvisation with a host of guest musicians. With the gallery lights dimmed, we will perform duets, unraveling my painting process into a confused dance of light, sound and movement. About the Performers: Gerard Assayag is head of the Music Representation Research Group at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)) in Paris and head of the STMS (Sciences and Technologies of Music and Sound) at the IRCAM/CNRS lab. With Carlos Agon, Assayag created the OpenMusic environment which is currently the standard for computational composition and musicology. With colleagues, he created the OMax computational improvisation system based on machine listening and machine learning and has become a widely recognized reference in the field. Brad Davis is a musician working with percussion and electronics. He has a special interest in experimental music and improvisation, particularly the use of chaos and feedback in electronic circuits. In the improv scene, he has worked with LaDonna Smith, Tatsuya Nakatani, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Arthur Doyle, and others. Andrew Raffo Dewar is a composer and soprano saxophonist whose work has been performed throughout North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. He is an Associate Professor in New College and the School of Music at the University of Alabama. William T. Dooley is associate professor of art and director of the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art at The University of Alabama. Atlanta-based noise duo Dux is cellist Chelsea Dunn and analog synth experimentalist Casey Battaglino. Max Eilbacher is a multi-media artist from Baltimore, Maryland. His work explores analogue and digital synthesis, computer animation, experimental video and performance. Holland Hopson is a composer, improviser, and electronic artist. As an instrumentalist he performs on clawhammer banjo, soprano saxophone and electronics. Holland often augments his instruments with custom-designed sensor interfaces and performs with his own highly responsive, interactive computer programs. Hopson is an instructor in New College at The University of Alabama. Jasper Lee is a mixed-media artist and composer from central Alabama. His work encompasses installation, sculpture, sound and video. He has recorded scores for several feature films and has performed nationally, including appearances at Bard College, The University of Alabama's Sonic Frontiers Concert Series, the Improvisor Festival, the Shreveport New Music Festival, the International Noise Conference and San Francisco's Asian Art Museum. LaDonna Smith is an internationally renowned violinist, violist and pianist who has been performing free improvisational music with many of the world's major improvisers since the mid 1970s. She is currently editor-in-chief and publisher of the improvisor (the international journal of free improvisation). Rodger Stella is a noise artist who is known for his work with the Pennsylvania noise groups Macronympha and O.V.M.N., as well as the more recent Birmingham, Alabama, duo Hollow Bush. Shea Stevenson is a musician, instrument builder and farmer from Nectar, Ala. He organizes a monthly experimental concert series at the Spring Street Firehouse in the Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham and performs his own exploratory sounds nationally. Davey Williams is an internationally renowned free improvisation and avant-garde music guitarist with a wide ranging musical career since the late 1960s playing with musicians from Johnny Shines to George Cartwright to Bruce Hampton (aka Colonel Bruce Hampton, Retired). He is a co-founder of the improvisor (the international journal of free improvisation. 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. Magicicada is Christopher White, an Atlanta musician and artist who creates mystical sound collages and evocative, organic drones from a arsenal of folk instruments, found objects, samplers and field recordings. 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) These performances are thanks to generous support from The University of Alabama's Department of Art and Art History painting and 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.
Visiting Artist Max Eilbacher to Perform in Sella-Granata
Artist Lecture and Performance: Max Eilbacher Date: April 20, 2016, 4:00 pm Where: Sella-Granata Art Gallery, 109 Woods Hall, UA campus Multi-media performance artist Max Eilbacher will give a talk and performance Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at 4:00 pm in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. The public is cordially invited to attend. Max Eilbacher is a multi-media artist from Baltimore, MD. His work explores analogue and digital synthesis, computer animation, experimental video and performance. He mines a grotesque sort of Hyperreality, straddling satire, psychedelia and uncompromising futurism. He exhibits and performs internationally, presenting his own work and collaborating with experimental music luminaries like Matmos, Dan Deacon, and the Horse Lords. Eilbacher will follow his talk by performing a new piece of quadraphonic electronic music. Max Eilbacher's talk and performance are thanks to generous support from The University of Alabama's Department of Art and Art History painting and digital media areas, and the UA Graduate School. Recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4hc-F1g7tk Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/m-e-74 Record https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpnkVHxyFJo Review http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/max-eilbacher-red-anxiety-tracers Facebook public event: https://www.facebook.com/events/198684130517043/ For more information on the exhibition and performances, contact: Assistant Professor of Art Jane Cassidy: jcassidy@ua.edu; Turner Williams: tbwilliams6@crimson.ua.edu; or Rachel Dobson: rachel.dobson@ua.edu.