Creativity swirled through the Guilford College Art Gallery on February 3rd, as this year’s Art Faculty Exhibition had opened its doors. This year focused around the diversity ideas, materials and imagery as mediums ranged from paintings, sculpture, and collaborative ceramics to graphics, photography, and a mixed-media sound installation.
Students’ eyes lit up throughout the room as they were finally able to see some of their professors’ most current endeavors in art. As an art major, I felt especially inspired as I was able to take a glimpse into the personal lives of my teachers and share vulnerabilities with them. It was a real treat.
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As you can tell, there was a lot going on and so much to see. It was amazing to see that a few teachers had been experimenting with some new mediums and materials, branching out of their comfort zone. It definitely paid off, but we’ll let you bet the judge.
I decided to feature some of the wonderful works from the opening night to share with you all. Please feel free to comment with thoughts or questions about the show or works in the show, we love to hear from our readers!
Maia Dery
Cape Fear River Basin Studies: Seeking rePLACEment
Maia’s position is split half-time between teaching photography for the Art department and coordinating the Cape Fear River Basin Studies Program for the Center for Principled Problem Solving.
(above) Basingrams: seeking rePLACEment in murky water, 2015, dye infused aluminum prints, 10″ x 10″
From her artist statement:
“As far as I can tell, there are two universal solvents: love and water. They radically dissolve the artificial boundaries we’ve used to separate ourselves from one another, to limit our responsibility and our vision. Of course, we have to have limits–line and edge that allows us to separate what we can have and control and do from what is beyond us. Who are we and who they are. Here and away.
Don’t we?
My body is mine and yours is yours, right?”
“The longer I photograph and teach and immerse myself in the circulatory fluid of the world the less I believe our easy habits of possession and relinquishment to be true.
We are all embodied forth from the places we live, from the planet and the water. And planet and water are forever altered by what we choose to do and make with our bodes while we ‘have’ them. We are parts of a whole that thrives or ails. Our place matters because we are it: thinking, breathing, loving, pulsing matter.
We are living place.
…
‘Sky and water, so long apart, are the same state of being.'”
(above) Want to know how you can score one of Maia’s original Basingrams? Follow this link: https://cfrbprintexchange.wordpress.com
Mark Dixon ’96
Mark has been teaching and directing the Sculpture program at Guilford since 2011.
He describes himself as “an object maker,” reverse engineer, machine acupuncturist, and career counselor for unemployed appliances.” He makes sculptural sound making devices and videos that are displayed as part of performances. He has practiced his craft in the experimental sound ensemble, Invisible, since 2007.
Mark has performed at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Ackland Museum, the Weatherspoon Museum of Art, the UNCG New Music Festival, CAM Raleigh, Moogfest, the Asheville Art Museum, 1708 Gallery in Richmond, 2nd Street Gallery in Charlottesville and the North Carolina Museum of Art.
(above) From Dixon’s electromechanical percussion machine, Rhythm 1001
From his artist statement:
“I began making and performing with sound machines because sculpture, music and invention were in a fierce battle for my attention. The solution seems so simple in hindsight but it was hard won: make them one thing.”
(above) Fisheye outtakes from after Mark’s performance
Roy Nydorf
Roy Nydorf is an award-winning carver, printmaker, painter and draftsman. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and is represented in numerous public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. He directs the department’s Printmaking and Drawing programs and has taught art at Guilford since 1978.
(above) Diver in a Pool, boxwood, metal, soapstone, 2016
(above) from left: Cedar Bird in Flight, red cedar, glass, metal, found object, mahogany base, 2015. Elevation, crepe myrtle, paint, metal, found object, mixed wood base, 2015
From his artist statement:
“My sculpture is improvisational – created while responding to random elements in the materials I find. I look for figurative suggestions in the cavities, limbs, twists, fractures, and grain patterns of the wood, which is my favorite material. This process is typically gradual, as new details and information become revealed as I proceed. Socio-Physiological meanings emerge to delight and/or baffle the viewer, but frequently I have no specific explanation.”
(above) Horned Creature of the Boxwood, boxwood, paint,walnut base, 2015
Charlie Tefft ’97 & Phil Haralem ’02
Myths, Nursery Rhymes and Other Stories
Charlie Tefft is half-time instructor of Ceramics. After graduating from Guilford in 1997 with a B.F.A., he moved to Atlanta, GA, where he was a full time studio potter. During his two years in Atlanta, he had work published in two books, was accepted to numerous exhibitions, and received a Purchase Award from Skutt Kilns for his piece, Dancing Teapot. He returned to Greensboro in 1999 to direct Guilford’s Ceramics program and has held the position ever since.
Phil Haralem was Charlie’s student until he graduated with a B.F.A. in Ceramics in 2002. He went on to earn his M.F.A. from Indiana University. Phil’s sculpture and functional pottery is known nationally and internationally. In addition to teaching part-time at Guilford College, Phil has taught ceramics at Perdue University, Indiana University, Arrowmont School of Crafts, and is currently teaching at Art Alliance of Greensboro and Rockingham Community College.
(above) from left: Jar, thrown porcelain, painted with underglaze. Fired to cone 7 oxidation, 2016. M.NR.OS 108, thrown porcelain, painted with underglaze and oxide washes. Ash glaze. Fired to cone 10 reduction, 2016. M.NR.OS 109, thrown porcelain, painted with underglaze and oxide washes. Ash glaze. Fired to cone 10 reduction, 2016.
Charlie and Phil began collaborating on ceramics in 2014 when they were invited to participate in “The Learning Tree II,” exhibition of art by mentors and their protégées at the African American Atelier. They have continued to collaborate on a group of 6 cups, twice a year, for they biannual pottery shows.
They have found the process has encouraged risk-taking and opened new possibilities for them as individual artists, as well.
(above) from left: M.NR.OS 105, M.NR.OS 106, M.NR.OS 107
All are thrown porcelain, painted with underglaze and oxide washes. Ash glaze. Fired to cone 10 reduction, 2016
From their artist statement:
“We set out to create a collaboration based on a predetermined set of rules like a game. These rules provide enough focus to yield conceptually and aesthetically resolved work while leaving enough room for exploration and play. “
(above) detail shots of Jar, thrown white stoneware, painted with oxide washes. Ash glaze. Fired to cone 10 reduction, 2015
Antoine Williams
“Something entirely fictitious and true, that creeps across your path hallowing your evil ways.”
~ Amiri Baraka (Writer, 1934-2014)
Antoine is the newest member of the Art department faculty. He came to Guilford in 2015 to teach painting, design, and drawing. He earned his M.F.A. in painting from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2014, and his B.F.A. UNC Charlotte. An artist educator, Antoine helped start a local art collective in Charlotte, where he did a number of community based art projects such as after school programs, rap concerts, murals, and pop-up art shows.
(above) The Dead Will Probably Target the Jargon as Gibberish, acrylic, spray-paint, collage, ink, transfer on canvas, 2014
Some detail shots…
From his artist statement:
“My practice is an investigation of my cultural identity through the exploration of societal signs as they relate to institutional injustices. I have created a mythology of images, of loosely autobiographical hybrid humanoid creatures that personify the complexities of perception, which affect race, class, and masculinity. My work is heavily influenced by sci-fi literature from authors such as Octavia Butler and H.G. Wells. I believe themes in science fiction are analogous to the contemporary Black experience in America. Therefore, I have created a world of beings that personify the complexity within hierarchies of power in everyday life.”
(above) The Knife and the Wound, I, acrylic, collage, ink, transfer on canvas, 2015
Kathryn Shields
We could never forget our lovely, pink-haired (sometimes) Department chair, Kathryn. Kathryn has been teaching art history at Guilford for over eight years and she is also the co-author of the best-selling art appreciation textbook, Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, (Thames and Hudson, 2011). Kathryn’s published essays include, “The Drama of Identity: Masking and Evolving Notions of Self In Contemporary Photography,” (2014) and “Carnival Mirrors: The Hermetic World of Music Video, 1980-2008” (2009). She is currently working on a new book titled, Redefining Creativity: Multi-layered Collaboration in Art and Art Historical Practice.
She’ll be giving a lecture in the art gallery based on her most recent research, so be sure to stop by on February 29, at 7:00 p.m.
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A special thanks to Terry Hammond ’81, our founding director and curator of Guilford College Art Gallery. She is the glue that holds our art gallery together and without her shows like this would not be possible!
The show runs from February 3rd-March 27th, so swing by the library before it’s too late!
Love,
Hand ░ Eye 