Biennial Baylor Department of Art Hosts Faculty Exhibition, Lectures, Reception
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Faculty Biennial Exhibition
WACO, Texas (Jan. 19, 2016) – Baylor art professors will have their work showcased in an exhibition from Thursday, Jan. 21 to Sunday, Feb. 28 in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.
The biennial exhibition will feature original works of art from the following faculty:
• Mark Anderson, Printmaking, professor and chair of the department of art
• Robbie Barber, Sculpture and 3D Design
• Michael Darough, Photography
• Ann Ekstrom, Oil Painting
• Leah Force, 2D and Undergraduate Program Director
• Benny Fountain, 2D Design and Drawing
• Mack Gingles, Drawing
• Virginia Green, Graphic Design
• Julia Hitchcock, Drawing and Oil & Acrylic Painting
• Berry Klingman, Printmaking and Drawing
• Greg Lewallen, 2D Design and Drawing
• Paul McCoy, Ceramics and Drawing, Director - Allbritton Art Institute
• Terry Roller, Graphic Design
• H. Jennings Sheffield, Photography
• Mary Ruth Smith, Ph.D, Fiber Arts and Fabric Surface Design
• Niko Weissenberger, Ceramics
Media for the artwork include ceramics, graphic design, painting, photography and sculpture. Each professor's art has been presented in individual and group shows around the world. Certain pieces will be for sale.
"The faculty exhibition is important in that students need to see what the faculty are doing, as does the campus and community," said Mark Anderson, chair of the department of art. Anderson chose his pieces for the show "because of their interrelatedness and the way they reveal what I was sensing and trying to convey, without using words."
Ceramics Professor Paul McCoy is looking forward to the exciting aesthetic the faculty's art produces when it is combined and displayed in the museum.
"I find it extraordinary that, 30 years into my career in Baylor’s department of art, I am still blown away by the sustained high quality of our faculty’s professional research … a portion of that credit goes to the museum staff, who know how to arrange and display this work, but it is also due to the integrity of each of our studio artists as they consider and implement their respective criteria."
McCoy said that he is "enormously proud" of being associated with his fellow art professors. The pieces he is showcasing for their exhibition reflect his current work; however, McCoy stated that his art has become less about the public and is "increasingly about using whatever time I have remaining to discover as much about who I am and why I am."
The event is the second biennial faculty exhibition. The show was designed to give faculty their own space to showcase their work, previously combined in a showing that included students' art pieces.
Art History Faculty Lectures
At 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 21, four art history professors will give a series of 20-minute lectures. The lectures, which will take place consecutively in Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall 149, cover a variety of topics.
• A Postmodern Theater: Günther Förg’s Stations of the Cross, by Amy A. DaPonte, Ph.D, will examine the artist’s motivations and influences in the series.
• Art Criticism and Celebrity Culture at the Salon of 1840, a lecture by Sean DeLouche, Ph.D, will analyze the portraits by Émile de Champmartin
• Nathan T. Elkins, Ph.D, will discuss the interpretation of coins as means to understanding political thought in his lecture The Visualization of Political Rhetoric in the Reign of Nerva, ad 96-98.
• In the lecture Michele Tosini’s Baptism of Christ: An Example of Lukan Iconography, Heidi J. Hornik, Ph.D, will cover the identification of icons from the Biblical writing of Luke in an alter panel of Florentine Italian Renaissance master painter Michele Tosini.
Reception to Follow
Following the lectures, the museum is hosting a reception from 5:30-7 p.m. with light refreshments.
Anderson said he considers the reception the most important moment of the exhibition.
"That is the culmination, the 'performance,' the social affair," he said. "There will be a number of people there, and once in a while some will comment to the artist about their artwork, and faculty get to see each other's work and visit about it. After that, the artists are not present, and unless we check the guest book, we never know who has seen the work, if anyone, and if they had any response to it."
Students and the public are welcome and encouraged to attend. Martin Museum of Art is located at 60 Baylor Ave., Waco, TX 76706.
by Jenna Press, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.
ABOUT MARTIN MUSEUM OF ART
The museum’s mission is one of education and service by bringing outstanding art exhibitions, speakers and guest artists to Baylor University and Central Texas. The museum serves as a valuable teaching tool for students and faculty. Exhibitions complement the courses of art history and studio art taught within Baylor’s department of art. The permanent collection consists of approximately 1,300 objects representing a variety of art that has been donated to or purchased by Baylor. The collection contains art by such well-known artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Kathe Kollwitz, Francisco de Goya, and Edouard-Leon Cortes. Included in the collection are approximately 300 paintings by famous watercolor artists, among them George Post, Phil Dike, Edgar Whitney and John Marin.