The Sam Houston State University Department of Art will present its 58 Annual Faculty Exhibition, open from Jan. 29 to March 2. An opening reception is set to take place Feb. 1 from 6-7 p.m. in the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery, located in Art Building E.
12 faculty members will contribute pieces from genres of drawing, painting, video, animation, ceramics, sculpture and photography. All events are free and open to the public.
“In terms of content, there’s not one thematic thing that carries throughout, but I think that artists living and working in close proximity, there’s always a lot of sharing of ideas and similar experiences,” event coordinator Max Manning said. “Potentially, subconsciously there can be dialogue that spreads, but we try to pick so that there is a good mixture.”
The opening reception of the event will be catered with light refreshments. Students and faculty from all departments are encouraged to explore the different facets of art displayed in the gallery.
“I’m trying to kind of spread the word past the department so we can get students and faculty members from different areas to attend,” Manning said. “We want to promote cross-disciplinary conversations and things like that.”
An artist talk will also take place on Thursday where a selection of the artists featured in the exhibition will give short talks pertaining to their pieces. Manning and his gallery organizers have worked to put the gallery together on-par with other professional exhibits.
“It gets down to fractions of an inch, in terms of where things go on the wall,” Manning said. “It’s like the ultimate irony of the work: it’s extremely intentional and precise, but it looks like it just happened. It should look effortless, but it certainly isn’t.”
Featured artists in the exhibition include Martin Amorous, Chris Cascio, Lauren Clay, Melissa Glasscock, Shaun Griffiths, Patric Lawler, Tudor Mitroi, Edward Morin, Valerie Powell, Heather Joy Puskarich, Jessica Simorte and Edie Wells.
“What we have here in Huntsville is important because we don’t have a ton of art available to the community,” Manning said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to have a high quality of art shown right here near them.”
To witness the diverse content of contemporary art in the exhibit, stop by the exhibit sometime before its closing date on March 2. Admission is free.
