Fine Arts Center Art Gallery presents
‘Routines and Repetitions’

Aug. 15, 2007 -- The Fine Arts Center Art Gallery at Arkansas State University is pleased to announce the opening on Tuesday, Aug. 28, of “Routines and Repetitions,” an exhibition of recent prints and drawings by artist and educator Nicole Hand. The Fine Arts Center Art Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Center, 114 Caraway Road, Jonesboro.

Nicole Hand is currently an associate professor of art at Murray State University in Murray, Ky., where she teaches printmaking, bookbinding, and drawing. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in over 175 solo, invitational, and juried exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include the 77^th Annual International Print Exhibition in Philadelphia, Color Print USA, the Boston Printmakers in Boston, Mass., the 2004 Pacific States Biennial in Hawaii, and Art in Isolation in Helsinki, Finland.

She has given lectures and workshops in over twenty venues, including the University of Arizona, the University of Texas at Arlington, Ohio University, the University of South Dakota, and the University of Kentucky. The Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, Tenn., and the Heike Pickett Gallery in Lexington, Ky., represent Hand's work. She received her MFA in printmaking from the University of Miami and a BFA from the University of South Dakota.

About her work she writes: “Themes of maternity, reproduction, femininity, closure, transition, and correspondence are apparent in my work. I use objects, placed in reliquary-like spaces, which have literal and abstract symbolism within a composition. The interaction between these objects explores the conventional and non-conventional roles of family, and at the same time documents a change of lineage. Layering objects and placing them in a dreamlike atmosphere suggest change, transition, and reflection. This allows me to preserve history and at the same time suggest tension, repetition, and change. The work becomes a documentation of these ideas as well as an organized timeline of events with a feminist perspective.”

The exhibition will be on view through Friday, Sept. 28, with a closing reception honoring the artist planned for Thursday, Sept. 27, at 5 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free to the public. The Fine Arts Center Gallery is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For additional information, contact the Department of Art at (870) 972-3050.

Nicole Hand, "Discarded  Accommodations," 2007
etching
9 x 9 inches