2007 Faculty Biennial is opening exhibition for the Bradbury Gallery's new season

Aug. 22, 2007 -- Arkansas State University’s Bradbury Gallery in the Fowler Center at Arkansas State University will begin the academic year with the 2007 Faculty Biennial. This ever-popular exhibition allows the public a look at new work by the studio faculty in ASU’s Department of Art. Featured in the 2007 Faculty Biennial will be William Allen, Roger Carlisle, Thomas Chaffee, Shelley Gipson, John Keech, Neil Matthiessen, Gayle Pendergrass, Phyllis Rambin, Daniel J. Reeves, William Rowe, John Salvest, Curtis Steele, Kim Vickrey, and Leslie Wyatt.

An opening reception for the 2007 Faculty Biennial will be held Thursday, Aug. 30, at 5 p.m. Many of the exhibiting artists will be present and available to speak to the public during the opening reception. This year, the Faculty Biennial continues through Sept. 30, 2007. The Bradbury Gallery and the Fowler Center are located at 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.

Several of the artists featured in this year’s biennial work with various forms of photography. William Allen, a well-known professor at ASU, has included two minimal yet powerful digital photographs. He says of this work, “An irony of photography resides in the belief that photographs immortalize a visage: I am photographed, therefore I will be remembered. Most photographs pass through a few generations before the identity of a person or a group of people is completely forgotten. My work does not identify individuals. Rather, I find a visage and pull it from obscurity.”

For many years, Curtis Steele, chair of the Department of Art, has captured photographic images of rural and urban sites, often focusing on the beauty of abandoned, neglected, or forgotten people, places, and things. His new work, a digital video projection titled “Implements, v.1,” takes a new approach to this familiar subject matter. He states, “For many years I have worked with the concepts of series and sequence in my photography. This work is simultaneously a series and a sequence.” 

He continues, “For the past eight months I have been photographing this row of farm implements. Long before I started to photograph them, I admired their linear arrangement… I positioned myself as closely as possible to a uniform point and photographed them using a digital camera to capture each slice. I then composed those slices into the digital video presented in this exhibition.”

Another artist working with photographic material is Kim Vickrey, an associate professor of art in graphic design at ASU. As a designer, Vickrey utilizes both type and image. Her 20-page hardbound book includes several of her photographs. along with text and design elements.   She says of her project, “The horses in my images are not just subjects; they are the figures in my artistic creations. Every element has a part to play in the layout of this project book…The artistic creations come after the photograph is taken, in the post-processing. As far as the computer goes, I try only to enhance what is already there. After all, it's only a machine...sort of like an instrument, and it is all in how you play it.”

Other artists in the exhibition working with a photographic medium include Shelley Gipson, Neil Matthiessen, Gayle Pendergrass, and Leslie Wyatt.  Examples of acrylic, oil, and latex painting, assemblage and collage, mixed media, drawing, photography, printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture will also be exhibited.

John Keech, professor of art, will be retiring after 40 years of teaching in the ASU Department of Art in May of 2008. In honor of his tenure at ASU, the Bradbury Gallery is presenting “Sea Of Love,” a mixed media installation of his work. This series of 10 lighted units will be on display during the 2007 Faculty Biennial.

The Bradbury Gallery’s hours are noon-5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and 2-5 p.m. on Sunday. The exhibition and the opening reception are free and open to the public. In observation of the Labor Day weekend, the gallery will be closed from Saturday, Sept. 1- Monday, Sept. 3. For additional information, please contact the Bradbury Gallery at (870) 972-2567.

 

From top:
William Allen
"Found Person," 2007
inkjet pigment on archival paper

Curtis Steele
"Implements, v. 1,7.18.07," 2007
digital photograph/digital video projection

John Keech
"Sea of Love," 2007
mixed media with lights
installation of 10 units, dimensions variable