Spring 2013 Senior Exhibition opens at Bradbury Gallery, Thursday, April 25
JONESBORO -- On Thursday, April 25, at 5 p.m., Bradbury Gallery will open the Spring 2013 Senior Exhibition featuring five graduating students from the Arkansas State University Department of Art.
The exhibiting artists this semester are Ashley Bradley, Hayley Denton, Stephanie D. Foreman, Abby Ganong and Lindsay Garland. These five artists will each exhibit several recent works of art. Included will be prints, paintings, photographs and sculpture.
The exhibition and the reception are admission-free and open to the public.
Bradbury Gallery is located in Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Dr. The exhibition continues through Saturday, May 11. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, and by appointment.
This May, Bradley will earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art with an emphasis in drawing and painting. She entered ASU with a Department of Art Scholarship and an Arkansas Challenge Scholarship and then earned a Friends of the Arts Annual Art Materials Award her senior year. She has been a member of the Art Student Union for the past two years and served as secretary this year. In 2012 and 2013 her work was included in the Art Student Union Juried Exhibition. After graduating, she plans to continue painting.
Commenting on her work, Bradley states, “My work depicts surreal landscapes with figures that exist in invented worlds. The figures act as explorers, discovering this new, odd territory and making it their playground. I work from handmade collages and further abstract the images through my painting process. By incorporating a dream-like reality, I provide a glimpse into a strange world that seems to exist as if in another dimension.”
Denton’s studio emphasis is both drawing and painting. She explains her art by stating, “This body of work is my exploration of historical paintings and it's connotations regarding modern culture and modern purpose. Formerly, paintings were used to educate the illiterate; we now have more effective methods with which to educate, leaving us with only masterpieces and echoes of the past. However, I believe that traditional painting can still be an effective method to convey complex ideas.”
She continues, “My subject matter is a classic one. I cast my figures in a modern light, staging and recreating them like the old masters that influence me. The Greek gods, more than any other pantheon, reflect both the ugly and beautiful side of humanity. The themes that they are known for are still present today. Modernizing them simply called for a change of scenery. The masks are both devices to identify the god or goddess that I paint and a way to separate the model from their identity, making them inhuman and thus making their roles as gods more believable. Their symbols are present as either still lifes of props within the scene, and are a way to introduce and identify with modern elements.”
Denton, who was raised in Harrisburg, received a Department of Art Scholarship in 2011 and 2012. A member of the Art Student Union, she served as both treasurer and as vice president. Her work has been seen in several locations in Jonesboro including Gallery 451, The Edge Coffee House and Cregeen’s Irish Pub. She has also shown her paintings in the Art Student Union Juried Exhibition held in the ASU Fine Arts Center Gallery in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Foreman has experimented with several different approaches to photography from professional wedding shoots to more playful interactions photographing children. She has taken pictures in a variety of locations from El Paso, Texas to her hometown of Hot Springs, Arkansas. She has also worked in other areas such as sculpture and mixed media.
In her artist’s statement, she says, “I tend to think of my work as memories and fragments of my life. Everyone has a different memory or perspective and sometimes pictures, sculptures, and paintings are the only thing we have to remind us of the way things happened. My work shows how I experience things.”
She further states, “All of my pieces are different from one another because no memory that you have is the same as the last, just as no two pieces are the exact same. In my opinion, keeping a simple color palette such as black, white and red is beautiful and creative. Since few colors exist, each piece is the center of attention but the intended focal point still stands out.”
Even though I like using only black and white in most of my work, I also like bright, vivid colors that make you smile, laugh or add emotion. I wanted to combine the two styles together so I decided to accentuate certain colors back into my pieces. This allows my work to stand out a little more but I still get the subject and the point across.”
After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree this May, Foreman plans to work as a free-lance photographer.
Ganong is a painter who will receive this May a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art with an emphasis in drawing and painting. Her work has been displayed in the Art Student Union Juried Exhibition held in the Fine Arts Center Gallery in 2011, 2012 and 2013. She was active in the art student union for several years and she served as the treasurer in 2012. Ganong plans to continue painting after she graduates.
While explaining her work Ganong says, “Through form and content the figure allows me a means to be expressive. I set up situations in which the sitter seems unconscious to my presence. I seek to explore solitude, intimacy, and sensuality in my paintings. Through mark, tone, and color I try to create a mood within my paintings. I know all my models personally and I think that brings a sense of intrigue to my work as well as a means of expression. I connect with my models, and painting them is a way to identify with them and myself.”
Born in Salem, Garland will receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art with an emphasis in photography. While a student she specialized in film development, printmaking, digital processing and editing. Her work has been seen in the Art Student Union Juried Exhibition held in the Fine Arts Center Gallery and is included in several private collections in the United States.
According to Garland, she is working on a collection of photographs that embody the concept of surrealism. The images in this series have a dreamlike feel that does not allow the viewer to follow them to a particular time or place. The subject matter is merely suspended in the moment of creation. She states, “I try to construct a world that is dramatically separate from the one we live in. I merge several images together, but only reveal segments from each, to build the concept I desire. These creations are inspired from things such as movies, music, daydreams, and faded recollections of memories. I want the viewer to forget they are simply looking at a photograph and instead see a world that is outside of reality.”
For additional information please visit www.bradburygallery.com or contact the Bradbury Gallery at 870-972-3471.
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