Category: Uncategorized (Page 8 of 8)

New Senior Thesis Exhibition Opens April 8 at Drake University Anderson Gallery

Three Drake Art and Design students are featuring a collection of their work in an exhibition titled Reflective Distinction. The exhibition will open on April 8 with a public reception from 5-7 PM at the Anderson Gallery, 2505 Carpenter Ave, Des Moines.

Reflective Distinction features the work of Betsy Hart, Rachael Kreski and Ryan Topete. Focusing on the development of nuanced expressions, the exhibition delves into the balance between elements of individuality and the importance of various influences to each artist, which vary from historical events, psychology, and the revival of the letterpress. Through a variety of media including painting, sculpture, graphic design, hand lettering, and photography, the selection of work on display explores the fruitful interplay between these themes. Reflective Distinction will run through April 22.

Betsy Hart is a BA double major in painting and psychology from Ankeny, Iowa. Her work approaches ideas of cognition and human consciousness through the process of dense layering, selective restraint, and exposed anomalies. Moving beyond traditional methods, her artwork pushes the balance between individual differences and human connectedness.

Rachael Kreski is a BFA graphic design major with a double minor in advertising and art history from Omaha, Nebraska. She is engaged in design, not only as a concept, but also a product of innovative ideas communicating visual messages through expressive typography. Craftsmanship is strongly utilized in application towards tactile materials in hand lettering and digital design.

Ryan Topete is a BFA in painting with an emphasis in drawing from Sioux City, Iowa. Through the use of contemplative imagery, bold forces of material, and meaningful refinement, his work grapples with conceptual ideas with varying degrees of abstraction.

Drake University’s Anderson Gallery is opening a new exhibition of student work as part of an annual juried show tradition. The 45th Annual Juried Student Exhibition at will open next weekend on Sunday, February 28, in the Anderson Gallery within the Harmon Fine Arts Center, 2505 Carpenter Ave. The gallery will host an opening reception and award ceremony from 1–3 p.m.

The annual exhibition features work by students from all studio and design disciplines. This year, the show will include over fifty works representing nearly thirty students from the Department of Art and Design, including several large-scale paintings and installations, carefully detailed etchings and drawings, handmade books, and works in new media, including digital video and augmented reality. The exhibition will remain on display through March 25.

Matthew Harris, administrator at the Iowa Arts Council, juried the exhibition, choosing the works for display. From those selected, Harris gave additional high honors to eleven works, which will be recognized as “Juror’s Choice.”

Award recipients will be announced and celebrated at the February 28 reception during a brief public ceremony at 2:00 p.m. Additionally, the Provost Purchase will be announced—this award allows one piece of artwork from the exhibition to be purchased for the University’s permanent collection.

If you saw the exhibition “Are We Global Yet?” before, you still have not seen it now! Although to the naked eye the gallery space may appear unchanged, an entirely new installation of 12 objects is now visible in augmented reality. Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to download the free app “Layar” on their personal devices or borrow one from the gallery before traveling the space of the exhibition. Using the devices, visitors now can see and interact with virtual installations in the physical space created by students from Prof. Metrick-Chen’s January term course: “Art / Virtual Reality / App.”

In the J-term course, Prof. Metrick-Chen led the students in an immersive exploration of contemporary issues raised by the intersection of our world of digital world and public art. As part of the J-term, New Media artist, Prof. John Craig Freeman (Emerson College,) guided the students in a week-long workshop in which they created objects in augmented reality. The students participated in Freeman’s ongoing and transnational art project, “Things We Have Lost,” in which participants choose an object that represents something absent. The resulting artworks use prosaic objects to disclose moving and personal themes.

The Anderson Gallery will host a closing reception for the exhibition on Tuesday, Feb. 2 from 4:00-6:30 PM, and encourages Drake students, faculty, staff and the Des Moines community to join in the festivities! The exhibition, in both its physical and augmented form, will continue to be on display at the Anderson Gallery through Friday, February 12.

The exhibition is supported by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation, the Center for the Humanities at Drake University, Humanities Iowa, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Anderson Gallery seeks applications for the position of Anderson Gallery Intern for the 2015-16 academic year. This is a paid internship offering 5-10 hours per week, with additional hours required during weeks of exhibition installation. This internship provides an excellent opportunity for a student to gain insight into the professional practice of gallery administration as well as hands-on experience working with visiting artists and providing graphic design support to the gallery. The position is a good fit for a graphic design student with marketing experience, however, applications will be accepted from any student of junior or senior standing in the department of art+design. (see requirements below for more information)

General responsibilities: (under the guidance of the director)

• Production of supplementary print materials for gallery exhibitions; including promotional posters, gallery labels, vinyl lettering, etc.
• Manages scheduling of gallery monitor staff
• Provides support for reorganization project of gallery media; occasional video editing for translation to the web, audio file production and maintenance on gallery ipods, etc.
• Assists with PR initiatives, including social media posting, website updates, flickr uploads, etc.
• Functions as primary student-gallery liaison for campus-wide PR
• Assists in packing/unpacking works of art, installations and strikes of exhibitions and gallery prep (including patching and painting walls, cleaning, lighting, possible work on ladders, etc.)
• Provides support in coordination of opening receptions, lectures and other public events
• Other duties as assigned

Internship project:

The Gallery Intern additionally functions as the curator and designer for the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition (opens in early March). In this role, the gallery director and design director will assist, however the exhibition is the responsibility of the gallery intern. Roles include:

• Working with the gallery design director (John Fender) on the creation of an exhibition catalogue, invites and related print materials for exhibition
• Curatorial duties including receiving/organizing accepted works of art, designing the layout of the gallery and coordinating with artists for installation
• Event coordination for the opening reception, including the award ceremony.

Requirements for application:

Applicants must:

• be a junior or senior at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, be enrolled in classes, and be majoring in a Drake University Art +Design program;
• have prior experience in graphic design (see below)
• be highly motivated, able to meet sometimes tight deadlines, multitask, and work independently;
• be easily accessible on a regular bxasis via email
• be willing and able to receive feedback and constructive criticism on matters pertaining to graphic, web, and exhibition design, writing, printing, etc.
• have an interest in gallery or museum work.

The following would be helpful but not required:

• possess an art historical vocabulary and have a rudimentary knowledge of art historical movements;
• completed classwork or has previous experience in marketing
• has a thorough understanding of Adobe CS (Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop) and have ready access to these programs;
• Success in and completion of the following courses or their equivalents or has achieved, through other means, the skill sets taught therein: Digital Print Production, Graphic Design 1, Typography 1

TO APPLY

Applicants should drop off resume with cover letter and samples of work to Alina in the Art Office. You may supply a disk with work examples, hard copies and/or provide information linking to a web portfolio. Resume and cover letter must be submitted in hard copy.

Applications will be accepted WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26 through noon FRIDAY, Sept. 4. Interviews will be conducted shortly thereafter. Position begins immediately.

Questions? Feel free to contact Heather Skeens at heather.skeens@drake.edu

On Sunday, March 8 the Anderson Gallery opened the 44th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition with a public reception and award ceremony. We would like to congratulate Evelyn Tomer, Claire Sedovic and Karly O’Connor for having their work in the exhibition recognized the Juror’s Choice Awards. These awards were selected for merit by our guest juror, Renee Meyer Ernst, professor of art at St. Ambrose University. And our congratulations to Pamela Murlhern for being selected to receive the Provost Purchase Award this year! Her untitled woodblock was purchased by the university and will hang in the Provost’s Office for the 2015-16 academic year!

Congratulations to all of the students who have work exhibited as part of the show. If you haven’t been in to see the work, it’s a must. This is one of the strongest showings we have had of student work! The exhibition runs through Friday, April 3.