January 10-February 28, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, January 10, 5-8 pm
All current and former students of DU’s School of Art & Art History were invited to submit recent work in any media for selection by jurors Lisa Tamiris Becker, director of the CU Art Gallery, Boulder, and Dan Jacobs, director of the Victoria H Myhren Gallery at DU.
Selected artists: Morehshin Allahyari, Julie Anderies, Julia Brucker, Phillip Faulkner, Kimberly MacArthur Graham and Bonnie Ferrill Roman, Robert Gratiot, Joseph M. Hutchinson, Eric Ianuzi, Mary Beth Koszut, Viviane Le Courtois, Cassandra Lillard, Laurel McMechan, James Milmoe, Kelly Monico, Heather P. N. Richardson, Alexandro Rojas-Sanders, Stacey Sotosky, D. Milton Tomlinson, Matthew Welton, E. K. Wimmer.
Morehshin Allahyari - Electronic Media Arts and Design graduate student
Ameneh at House; gsp, nd. 16x20"
I am Morehshin Allahyari from Iran and I am a grad Digital Media Studies student at the University of Denver.
Julie Anderies - MA Art History, 2006
Copper Pearl; ceramic, 1999. 5" x 8" x 8"
An Art Historian doesn't have to sit on the sidelines...no better way to understand art than to participate in the process.
Line Network 1; acrylic on paper, 22" x 15" x 0"
This current series explores networks and the connection of scientific research to human experience.
The overall basis of my work is my exploration of the mysteries of the universe, the human body, the elements of nature, and the Self. Through science, definitions of objects, systems and experiences are created. Art allows for the wonder of these facets of life and existence to be absorbed simultaneously and explored in an intuitive, non-linear fashion.
Phillip Faulkner - Electronic Media Arts and Design graduate student
Fake Adidas'; acrylic, ink, oil and transfer, 2007. 80" x 50"
"Non-Commercial Design" is an appropriate description of my style. Concept takes a back seat to aesthetic, and the image is the focus. Messages are intentionally lefy open for interpretation, and imagery draws from an array of sources ranging from pop iconography to found and self-constructed elements. Repetition is used, and elements are recycled. My current commentary continues with the notion of a disposable society. It deals with the realization of pop culture's influences, and the nationwide notion of "the norm," and how it morphs. www.phillipfaulkner.com
Kimberly MacArthur Graham and Bonnie Ferrill Roman
Kimberly Graham - MA Art History and Museum Studies, 1997
Frost and Flame, oil and m/m on wood, encaustic on branches, and handmade paper, nd. 72" x 80 " x 9"
Splendid beauty speaks most often to me from a prosaic mouth. Inspired by the complex patterns of growth and life cycles, and by the diversity, adaptability, and interdependency of living organisms, I create art that suggests questions rather than dictating answers. Rich in texture, color, and materiality, my work celebrates the universal balance of opposites: fertile and barren, desirable and repellant, momentum and rest, life and death.
I am in debt to a variety of global predecessors, including 15th-century Northern European painting, Islamic and Aboriginal art forms, and Chinese and Japanese scroll-painting. I am influenced by an ever-expanding spectrum of individual artists including Hieronymus Bosch, Sean Scully, Fred Tomaselli, Emilio Lobato, Lisa Ludwig, and Judy Pfaff. I am inspired by the Japanese notion of sabi, or finding beauty in the old and imperfect, and by anyone not afraid to make deeply personal art.
Robert Gratiot - MFA Painting, 1973
Max'ims, Greeley, Co; Acrylic on Canvas, 2006; 32" x 59 1/2"
My acrylic paintings have two strongly differing subject orientations, with quite a few aesthetic and conceptual overlaps between the two.
In most of the city scenes I am interested in seeing the illusion of several different planes of space overlapping each other and standing side by side. This gives the viewer the impression of seeing objects near the surface of the picture plane, deep inside the picture plane, and behind the viewer himself. It allows for first, second and third readings, and gives me the opportunity to combine many abstract elements to create a realistic whole.
I have two paintings in this show; the John Lennon Glasses in Cellophane I consider to be one of my still life pieces, and the painting titled Max'ims (above) is an urban landscape. In both, I have put many abstract parts together to create a rather realistic whole. I consider these works to be contemporary, painterly, photorealism. www.robgratiot.com
Joseph M. Hutchinson - BFA, 1959; MA, 1996
Mesa Verde III; Oil, 2007. 48" x 48" x 0"
Joe Hutchinson has been painting for nearly 50 years as a professional artist. He has exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally and has won many awards; one of his paintings is in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum. He has work in corporate and private collections in the United States, Italy, Great Britain, France and Germany. He retired from university teaching and lives in Santa Fe.
Joe’s most recent oils are abstractions of the Southwest landscape and he is currently exploring the geometry of the ancient cliff dwellings and canyon formations of Mesa Verde, Acoma Mesa, and
Chaco Canyon.
A Lost Mind; Oil & Collage on Canvas, 2003. 28" x 22" x 0"
War, conflict, death, disease, suffering, starvation and homelessness all contribute to human affliction and abuse. The series People in a Torn World is less about activism or political position and more about how a tragic event affects an individual person or group.
The artist utilizes explicitly strong images, bold messages and mix of vivid colors and at times black, to bring to light world events involving human suffering. The images capture the graphic nature of the events – the emotion, pain and hopelessness people experience during their trials and unfortunate times.
Look into the eyes of the people depicted. See their enduring hardships – their struggle for peace and security. The work does not hope to present a story. The work is meant to evoke compassion for our fellow man.
Blackbird I, oil on canvas, 2007. 10" x 8" x 1"
I am a painter, a teacher, and an expressionist with a wandering spirit. In an effort to unify my personalities, I have begun to document the search for visual voice. I am documenting pictorially, through my paintings.
My newest series of work explores the human search for the Holy Spirit, for faith and purpose; to find beauty in the common and joy in the everyday. My imagery is the common yet iconographic bird. This series of work has become Asian in influence, yet African in text, vocal songs calling forth the Holy Spirit. I am striving to express that no matter what culture or religion, faith and truth should be accessible uniting factors to all; to be seen in common everyday images, like birds on a wire. I wish not to show the divisions of religion but the unity of a common spirit seen in the beauty of each day .www.kozyart.com
Viviane Le Courtois - MA Art History, 2000
Single Sock Fossils, high fired porcelain and single socks, 2004. 192" x 50" x 6 "
Observations of the world around me constantly feed my concepts of creation. My installations, sculptures and prints are cerated from original processes. Intrigue and curiosity call visitors to explore these new multimedia environments.
By displaying useless but precious objects in my installations, I make people look at ordinary objects, ideas and materials through a variety of displays, sometimes recalling installations in science or anthropology museums.
In most of my pieces, I indirectly criticize contemporary society including wastefulness, environmental negligence, or lack of observation. Addictions, collections or obsessive attachments to useless things such as used shoes, food residues, single socks, empty pickle jars, junk food or junk mail fascinate me. I rearrange fragments from the consumer society to create overwhelming installations commenting on global problems. http://homepage.mac.com/lecourtoisviviane
Number Eight; Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 2007. 48" x 48" x 0"
My current work begins as a vision consisting of color and general composition. I begin each painting with this vision and allow evolution to take place as I work. The excitement comes when I surprise myself with a finished product that is quite different from the original thought. When working in sculpture I enjoy constructing materials into aesthetically ordered products by carefully manipulating each component into a cohesive visual statement. During the creative process these paintings often feel like sculpture as I add lines and color piece by piece. I try to work as fast as possible. It is important for me to capture my first instinct for composition and color. I make quick decisions and do not obsess about where masking lines should go. I trust immediate reactions for line placement and color choice. I want these pieces to be an accurate expression of my sensibilities for composition and color.
Laurel McMechan - BFA Painting, 2004
Me (blue, 2); oil on linen, 2007. 16.5" x 20" x 2"
My work is fueled by a fascination with an individual's changing context as it supports our collective "human condition." I paint to analyze and explore the tension that we as humans encounter throughout our lives, be it physical, emotional or mental. An inherent irony I have noticed is that without tension there is no growth, progression or development. This makes for an uncomfortable existence at times
Current Series ‘The Space Between’: It seems we whirl around each other with little semblance of order to our paths, pushing speeds that make it feel like sometimes we only move in slow motion. These paintings are about relationships, between different people, between stations in life and aspects of self. Just as light leaves a blurry trail as it passes through a dark space, the simultaneous transition through states of being, space and time, leave a visual residue. I am working to grasp the flux that is self.www.laurelmcmechan.com
Kelly Monico - MFA Electronic Media Arts and Design, 2005
Chloro 1; duratran print mounted on lightbox, 2007. 30 x 24 x 4"
Kelly Monico's work focuses on the conceptual nature of the female figure in public space. She investigates what is public vs. what is private, inviting the audience to reflect on the formative role that pop-culture and technology play in our lives. More recently, her work explores the relationship between nature and technology in live interaction form, using pure data technologies. www.kmonico.com.
Heather P.N. Richardson - BFA Studio Art
Pomegranate Seeds; cut paper, 2006. 5" x 5" x 0"
I once told someone, who asked what I did professionally, that I untangle kite strings all day. Each day ends with the accomplished feeling of a job well done. Each day begins with re-tangled strings. In this series, I'm exploring my life in this way… following a string to its end, not knowing where it will lead. Then, when I think I've finally reached the end, I discover it's just the beginning of another string. Often, the strings, rather than being linear, bring me back to the same spot. But the path is not so much a circle as it is a spiral. The place to which I return looks the same, but even a millimeter of change in myself is enough to make the circle incomplete - to start a new loop on my spiral path, and to give a sense of depth and perspective to my journey.
Each one of these prints is an individual string in my personal journey. While connected to what came before and what will come after, each one stands alone as its own exploration. www.zhibit.org/hpnr
Alexandro Rojas-Sanders - Electronic Media Arts and Design graduate student
Untitled Quattro; photography, 40" x 30"
With this series, which I call Stop Anytime, I want to create awareness of the conditions in which a great portion of the world’s population lives in while maintaining the same consumerist trend that characterizes capitalist societies. Antoine Lavoisier, the Eighteenth-century French chemist, stipulated in his “Law of Energy Conservation” that energy (and matter) cannot be created or destroyed, only manipulated and transformed. Thus, it just takes to look around the world to realize that this law applies also in society and our economic system; it is not hard to see how many billions of people live in absolute misery while so many people live in opulence. www.alexandrosanders.com
www.alxmountainman.wordpress.com
Stacey Sotosky - Electronic Media Arts and Design graduate student
Blue Room is a video art installation made up of three televisions situated in an arc with audio provided from the television speakers as well as on headsets. The televisions take on the role of eight different women who reflect on their experiences in order to help others involved in domestic violence. The resources for Blue Room are a collection of private interviews that I conducted with inmates at Lincoln Corectional Center, a women's prison in Illinois.
At the time of the interviews the women were in the process of rehearsing for a theatre performance inspired and written from the accounts of a group of domestic violence survivors. Because of the women's experiences and their work on producing the play, the interviews are lucid in confronting the mind-state of individuals who need support in both breaking away and healing from abusive relationships.
D. Milton Tomlinson - BFA Ceramics and Teacher Licensure, 1973
Irukandji; sand-cast glass with forged and reclaimed steel, 2007. 41" x 10" x 10"
I create successful sculptural compositions through the union of hand-worked glass and reclaimed and forged metals. I find the balance of mental and physical challenges inherent to problem solving aesthetic concepts along with the marriage of two similar yet at the same time seemingly incompatible materials very inspiring.
Matthew Welton - Studio Art major
Lotus; ignited gunpowder on watercolor paper, 2007. 20" x 28" x 0"
In Buddhism, the lotus represents mental and spiritual transcendence. This is akin to the way in which the lotus must uproot itself from the mud in which it was sprang, and ascend through the murky waters in which is was submerged, before it can reach the water’s surface and flourish. In this sense, the lotus works as a symbol of perseverance in the face of resistance and uncertainty. I correlate this dynamic with my own life as a budding artist, and as an individual who is simply driven to succeed. By using gunpowder to create this symbol, I am tapping into the excitement and danger inherent to the medium and channeling it through this transcendental phenomenon. The potential energy involved with the creation of this piece compliments the significance of the lotus itself, and yet, subverts the destructive nature of the medium by using it as a means of creation/creativity.
E.K. Wimmer - Art History graduate student
Self Portrait with a Palette, oil on canvas, 2007. 32"x26"x1"
The Iandi Art Movement Manifesto overview: The idea of an art movement is not new, nor is the concept of a manifesto which appears throughout the history of modern art. A manifesto is never an answer to all problems, but in the case of the Iandi Art Movement our manifesto does offer the freedom to pursue personal growth with the support of like-minded individuals. A manifesto binds together individuals that wish to define art on their own terms, not the terms of a gallery, educational system, or critic.
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