Art at the Undergraduate Research Symposium

left to right: Kim Gay, Laura Rebecca Phillips, Emily Guthner, Benjamin Larned, Justice Kaufman, Sabrina Brooks.

The Art Department was well represented at the annual ODU Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Saturday, February 7, in the Learning Commons at Perry Library. Students from the concentrations in Studio Art exhibited selected works while those from Art History presented papers in two panels: “New Research in Renaissance and Baroque Art:” Benjamin Larned, Justice Kaufman, Emily Guthner, Sabrina Brooks, and Laura Rebecca Phillips; and “New Research in Modern and Contemporary Art:” Deanna Brooks, Eva Marie James, Magan Shepard, Carlie Bagley, and Sarah Gorman.

Amanda Gonzalez, Drawing and Design

Kristen Brown, Photography

Alexis Cooper, Photography

Ashley Parrish, Photography

Rebecca Phillips, Painting

Shanna Crockett-Huggins, Graphic Design

Alyssa Hayek, Painting

Kaitlyn Hennessy, Sculpture

Carlie Bagley, Sculpture

Jack VanDyke, Sculpture

Jamar Weatherspoon, Printmaking

Cristina Irizarry, Drawing and Design

Magan Shepard, Drawing and Design

Work by Margaret Bush, Painting (not present)

Greta Pratt at Third Thursday

Associate Professor of Photography Greta Pratt will present an artist talk on February 19 at 6:30 pm as part of the Chrysler Museum of Art’s monthly Third Thursday events. She is speaking in conjunction with the Chrysler’s exhibition of Professor Pratt’s work, Nineteen Lincolns, opening February 10. Admission to Third Thursday is $5, and free for museum members and students with current ID.

Graphic Design Exit Review

The faculty and graduating students in the graphic design concentration invite everyone to the 2013 Graphic Design Exit Review, on Friday, May 3, 7:00–9:00 pm. The event is an open house in VAB 116 and 211 where visitors may view the final portfolios of the graduating class of graphic design students. (Graphics by James Harris.)

“Blunt” Design Education Conference

The 2013 AIGA Design Educator Community’s conference, Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now, was held at ODU on April 12–14. Graphic Design faculty Ivanete Blanco and Kenneth FitzGerald were co-organizers of the overall conference and served as event hosts. The conference welcomed over 100 attendees from the U.S., Canada, and Europe discussing topics on graphic design critical writing, education, history, and practice. A workshop by Hatch Show Print’s Jim Sherraden was a featured part of the event, with thanks to Ken Daley for hosting the workshop in the Printmaking facility. For pictures of the conference, go here.

Photo students to Richmond

On Friday, February 15, Photography Three and Photo Seminar II students made a special field trip to Richmond to view photography shows in town. Artists Brian Ulrich and Susan Worsham spoke to students about their work at their respective shows at VCU’s Anderson Gallery and Candela Gallery.

(L to R) Stephanie Ramirez, Ashley Parrish, Taylor Roy, Ali Hamilton, Maribel Dunning, Kate Swartz, Jenny Stoudt, Leah Austin, Robbin Love, Jessica Fee, Christy Landrum, Greta Pratt, Amanda Bradley, Chali Cameron, Bryan Ruiz, Elliot Fisher, Stephan Hancock.

Visiting Artist/Exhibitor David Page

Sculptor David Page will be giving a gallery talk on his work at 7:30 pm during the opening reception of his exhibition in the Changing Gallery of the Baron and Ellin Gordon Galleries at ODU. The show, God and Lunch Meat, opens on Friday, January 18 at 7:00, and runs through February 17. Page is currently on the faculty of the Corcoran College of Art and Design and “his strongly provocative work, made from leather, wood, and canvas, is ominous yet elegantly constructed.”

Caravaggio’s Birthday Celebrated

On September 26, Assistant Professor of Art History Dr. Anne Muraoka’s Art History topics class celebrated the artist Caravaggio’s 144th birthday with a cake topped with one of his many embedded self-portraits. This one is from David and Goliath in the Borghese Collection, Rome.

Trip to Philadelphia, October 5-7

The Art Department is sponsoring a trip to Philadelphia, October 5–7.
Highlights will include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the new home of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, and a public art tour.
We will be staying at The Best Western Center City Hotel which is nestled along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, home of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the famous Rocky Statue and Steps), Ben Franklin Institute, and just next door to the new Barnes Foundation and the Rodin Museum. The Hotel is within 4 blocks walking distance to these Museums. The Hotel is also less than 3 miles to the Liberty Bell Pavilion, Independence Hall and  the National Constitution Center. Participating professors will be developing itineraries from which to select.

$100 by September 13, reserves your space.
The cost includes bus fair and two nights hotel stay (four to a room). You will need to budget at least $50 for meals and incidentals plus $25 for admission to two major museums.
ACT NOW! SPACE IS LIMITED!

UPDATE: An informational meeting  will be held Tuesday, September 18, at 5 pm, VAB 116.

For additional information, contact:
Heather Bryant hbryant@odu.edu
Elliott Jones ejones@odu.edu
Cheryl White cswhite@odu.edu
Robert Wojtowicz rwojtowi@odu.edu

Richard Nickel at TCC

Art Education Program Director Richard Nickel’s solo exhibition e-mails from God’s Glue Factory closeout sale is being presented at The Visual Arts Center of Tidewater Community College September 12–November 3. A reception will be held on Friday, September 16 at 7:00 p.m. with an informal gallery talk by Professor Nickel preceding the opening at 6:00 p.m. Events are free and open to the public.

Professor Nickel is presenting work that made from recycled clay and wood. Contrary to a more serious and solitary approach to art making, he searches for humor in the lighter side of human existence, demonstrating the necessity for a deeper understanding of the human condition. Love, hope, family and community are recurring themes in his work. Professor Nickel’s work is frequently recognizable, colorful, symbolic, and at times autobiographical, and presented in two- and three-dimensional ways. Mainly figurative, his characters are depicted in everyday routines: men build houses; women tend to children; friends gather together. All are joyful and live in a world where there is perpetual promise and hope. (Shown above: Running on Empty, earthenware, 15 x 15, 2011)

Tess LiVolsi Amoruso Thesis Exhibition

Visual Studies graduate student Tess LiVolsi Amoruso will present her thesis exhibition any space, any place virtual pilgrimage at The Visual Arts Center in Portsmouth, May 7 – June 23, 2011. A reception will be held on Friday, June 3 at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

LiVolsi Amoruso uses photography, mixed media and video to document her recent pilgrimage to one of India’s most sacred sites, the hill Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. Epic landscapes, indigenous people and sacred animals are frequent subjects in this thematic exhibit. By using native sounds, contemplative space, lightly fragranced incense and randomly placed psycholinguistics, LiVolsi Amoruso heightens the awareness of the experience for viewers.