The Gaddis Geeslin Gallery presents Oogly Boogly, featuring prominent artists such as Lauren Clay, Shaun Griffiths, Heather Joy Puskarich, and Jessica Simorte, all faculty members in SAM’s art department. The free showing that began this Monday will be open to students through the 15th of November.
Michael Henderson, Department Chair of the SHSU Art Department talked about the exhibition and what the department is trying to accomplish with it.
“The artists all recently joined the faculty of the Department of Art at SHSU,” Henderson said. “The exhibition is an opportunity for students, other faculty and members of the community to become familiar with their work.”
Henderson can’t wait to see the new faculty members’ works in person. He encourages students, staff and the community to attend the showing.
”I am personally excited about the exhibit because it will give me an opportunity to see work by our new faculty that I have only seen in photographs,” Henderson said. “It will also give all of our students and faculty a chance to get to know these artists and their work.”
Many different forms of art can be appreciated at the gallery. The gallery is for art admirers of all types, and will give art students a chance to acquaint themselves with the various styles of their professors.
Henderson talked about how the exhibit will appeal to a wide range of viewers and how it includes many different mediums of art.
“The exhibit is for everyone and will include paintings, sculptures, and video installations,” Henderson said.
The Oogly Boogly’s artists come from all around, and have very different and unique styles.
Lauren Clay is from southwest Louisiana and received her MFA from Wichita State University. She teaches ceramics in the Department of Art at SHSU.
Henderson and Clay both discussed her work in greater depth.
“Miss Clay creates ceramic sculptures that are inspired by architectural frameworks such as arches, skeletons and cages,” Henderson said.
“These structures provide contrast to the fragility and vulnerability of the ceramic material,” Clay said.
She describes the patterns in her sculptures as “dissolving forms that lend an unkempt corruption to the elegance of the work.”
Professor Shaun Griffiths received his MFA in Glass from Alfred University in New York. He is teaching Digital Photography and Performance and Video in the Department of Art.
Henderson talked in detail about Griffiths’ work.
“Mr. Griffiths will exhibit video installations that investigate the intersection between perception and knowledge,” Henderson said. “In his work, he manipulates the artistic conventions of portraiture and interiors in different ways.”
Professor Griffiths describes his art as being “simultaneously physical and mental, imaginary and real.”
Heather Joy Puskarich and Jessica Simorte are new faculty members teaching in W.A.S.H., the Department of Art’s foundations program.
Ms. Puskarich has an MFA in Glass, Sculpture and Dimensional Studies from Alfred University.
Ms. Puskarich says her art explores “ideas of beauty and consumption by utilizing consumer and industrial waste such as confectionaries, glass, metal, textiles, cosmetics, etc.”
Jessica Simorte earned her MFA in Two-dimensional Studies from the University of Cincinnati Design, Architecture, Art and Planning Program.
Simorte paints abstract art that is ambiguous and nonspecific. She arranges her paintings in groups or clusters so that the imagery in the paintings creates references and analogies.
“By looking at interiors through the filter of materials and physicality, the work ultimately focuses on drawing and painting as a means of navigating physical and intangible places,” Simorte said.
Attending the event is a great way for students to expand their minds and learn more about art. The fact that the artists are fellow Bearkats is just an added benefit.
The artists will give lectures about their work on Thursday, October 29 and Thursday, November 12, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Art Auditorium. All who are interested are welcome to attend.
