Events and News
Upcoming Events
April 28th - June 3rd
MFA Exhibition - WAM
Opening reception
April 29th - 2pm - 4pm
Artists Gallery Talk
May 1st - 12pm-1pm
May 4th - 1:30 pm
Art Department Graduation
May 4th - 18th
BFA Senior Show
Gatewood Gallery
Department of Art News
Dr. Perrill reviews exhibition of South African ceramics
Dr. Elizabeth Perrill has recently reviewed a retrospective exhibition of South African ceramics at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town for the South African art website, Artthrob. This exhibition is one of the first of its kind in South Africa and "brings together the work of rural African potters, local studio pottery, imported wares of historical significance and contemporary ceramics." Read More
Dr. Perrill will be traveling to Durban, Pietermartizburg, and Cape Town, South Africa in June to officially launch her new book Zulu Pottery. This book documents the rise of Zulu ceramics as a contemporary art form. Sold in galleries these pots are symbols of an array of transforming cultural, national and artistic expression. Further information can be found here.
Art History Student, Mary Piepmeier wins UNCG Undergraduate Research Award
Senior art historian, Mary Piepmeier, won first place in the university-wide Humanities research category at the Undergraduate Research Expo for her presentation on the Pola Casket. Panels of three faculty members evaluated student presentations and papers. Mary's award carries a cash prize of $1000, which she intends to use to further her research while in Italy on the department's trip this summer.
She will be officially recognized for the award on Monday, April 16 at 7:00 in the EUC at the annual Honors Convocation
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Art Students Recognized
Four of our students have won a Student Excellence Award, UNCG's highest academic honor for undergraduates. This is an extraordinary accomplishment on the part of each student. Please join me in congratulating this year's honoree's who will receive their awards at the Honor's Convocation on April 16. They are:
Alexander McKenzie--studio art
Ivan Gilbert--studio art
Sarah Cornette--art education
Mary Piepmeier--art history
Lee creates sculpture for new police station
Billy Lee, Professor of Art, created the sculpture on display before the new Steele Creeke police station in Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer reports. The artists described his work as "contemplative, graceful and visual poetry. "The tree idea was most interesting to me," Lee told the paper. "I took the idea and thought about it: how a tree, like a police station, is rooted in the community and is strong and steady. I took that notion and came up with my own concept, which is what will stand outside the police station."
Assistant Professor Sheryl Oring has been selected for a public art commision for the San Diego International Airport
Sheryl Oring has been selected by the Art Committee of the San Diego International Airport for a public art commission at the airport. For this project, Oring will complete a residency at the airport this May. During the residency, she will research potential sites within the airport's new terminal and will develop a proposal for work that will stimulate an intentional and ongoing dialogue with the local and traveling communitiesthrough the creation and installation of site-specific art. Oring was awarded the commission through a competitive process associated with the airport's largest improvement project in its history, a $1 billion, 10-gate expansion due for completion in 2013. The selection panel noted that Oring's work "relies heavily on engaging broad-based audiences through the facilitation of public discourse on political, social, historical and personal subjects." Additionally, the panel "found her work to be very inclusive and community-driven. They appreciated her ability to create discourse in a way that is non-threatening."
UNCG Art Professors launch interactive project for University of Memphis centennial
For its centennial project, the Art Museum of the University of Memphis invited artists Sheryl Oring and Dhanraj Emanuel for a series of interactive, public art performances, which was held March 20th through the 22nd on the University's campus. During the two-hour events, a crew of typists in 1960s garb set up a portable public office; complete with manual typewriters and invited passersby to answer the simple question about the future of the University: "What do you think the University could be?" Responses were typed verbatim on postcards that will be included in Alma Mater: University of Memphis, an exhibition at the Art Museum that will also include photos and videos related to the performance. Read more here.
Students recognized at Photography Forum
Congratulations to Heather Creed, Dameatrae Hodge and Sinru Ku for being selected as finalists in the Photographer's Forum 2012 Best of Colleges and Universities Photography sponsored by Nikon. Heather Creed is a junior, majoring in design. See Heather's winning photograph here. Dameatrae Hodge is a senior, majoring in design. See Dameatrae's photograph here. Sinru Ku's photograph went on to receive an Honorable Mention. Sinru is a senior majoring in Dance and minoring in Studio Art. See her winning photograph here. All finalists are students of Leah Sobsey.
Honors Symposium - Feb 24th
On Friday, February 24, four students from the Art Department will present papers at the annual, juried Honors Symposium hosted by the Lloyd International Honors College at the EUC.
From 2:00-2:50 in the Maple Room, the panel "Relics and Reliquaries in the Late Antique and Medieval West." Panel presenters include senior art historians, Kathleen Hardin ("The Importance of Touch During the Middle Ages), Henry Hilston ("A Plaque from a Reliquary Chasse: Christ and Becket Together at Last") and Mary Piepmeier ("The Pola Casket").
Senior painter, Ivan Gilbert will present his Senior Honors Project, "Contours of Community," at 3:00 in the White Oak Room.
Students' Art Juried into Area Exhibition
Anna Godden and Ivana Beck have been selected for the Big South Undergraduate Research Symposium (BigSURS) Intercollegiate Juried Exhibition at Winthrop University. The exhibition will open on Monday, April 2, in the Lewandowski Student Gallery (#6) in McLarurin hall.
Assistant Professor Sheryl Oring to do a performance at CAA in Feburary
In honor of the CAA Centennial, artist Sheryl Oring will ask CAA (College Art Association) conference attendees the question, "What is the role of the artist?" Over the course of a two-day performance, Oring will pose the question and then type the answers verbatim on a manual typewriter, with a goal of collecting 100 answers. Collectively, these answers will paint a portrait of academic views on this question as the CAA enters its second century. After the performance, the answers will be displayed on the CAA website and Oring will collect the cards into an archive that may be used to create an artist's book and exhibition.
Sarah Thornton wrote about CAA for Art Forum - here
Hyperallergic blog post: What is the Role of the Artist?
See images of some of the cards - here
Seth's Promise - Liberia, West Africa
Seth Bunch, Junior, UNCG BFA Art Education student stands tall on a promise he made to a group of Liberian orphans that they would not have to walk 3 hours to high school. Read about his 400 mile bike ride, $10,000 fundraising and the progress he has made in fulfilling that promise here.
UNCG BFA graduates introduce unique sculpture to the public
UNCG BFA graduates, Casey and Emily Lewis established Beechwood Metalworks of Burlington, NC in 2002. The team has become a sought-after source by hospitals and municipalities for creating safe, interactive custom metal installations, specializing in unique sculpture. Their project "Revolution" will be introduced to the public during the grand opening of the Cancer Center of Greensboro on January 22nd - 2-4pm. "Revolution" consists of a rooftop garden filled with a field of metal flowers and butterflies.
For more information click here.
Associate Professor Chris Cassidy exhibits at Meredith College
Standing There: Videos Mixed Media by Chris Cassidy
January 29th - March 18, 3012
Opening Reception: January 29th, 2-4pm
A number of projects whose intent is to envision place while also envisioning the compro-mised devices of seeing place are presented in this show. They range from single-channel video work to more complicated works employing custom software and hardware. One piece will involve students in creating an experiential map.
For more information click here.
Dr. Elizabeth Perrill publishes book
Dr. Perrill's book, Zulu Pottery, focuses on contemporary ceramics from the northern half of KwaZulu-Natal, where ongoing traditions are kept alive, to the heart of Durban, where newer artists are transforming and innovating. Masters such as Nesta Nala, as well as a new generation of artists, including Jabu Nala and Clive Sithole have travelled the world demonstrating the art of Zulu pottery.
Dr.Perrill has researched Zulu pottery under many prestigious fellowships and curated exhibitions of Zulu ceramics. Her continuing research in rural and urban South Africa seeks to tie together the rich history and contemporary dynamism of Zulu ceramic traditions.
For more information click here.
Self-Portrait Competition
The Student Art League hosted their first Self-Portrait Competition in November. All entries were required to be either 12" by 12" for 2D work or 12" by 12" by 12" for 3D work. A panel of faculty jurors chose the top 7 submissions out of 49 entries. Awards were donated by the Art Department and Addam's Bookstore. Congratulations to the following students:
Chad Greene
Suzi Tisdell
Eliseo Santos
Clara Iliff
Alex McKenzie
Briana Salcedo
Jessica Stalvey
NC Museum of Art presents Self, Observed
UNCG Art student's work is part of a forty-one works on view in the museums's debut college student exhibition, Self, Observed. Lauren Ling (Senior, Design) and Jackson Thomas (Freshman, Sculpture) works are included in the exhibit representing college students from 14 colleges across the country. A group of 8 students from UNC-Chapel Hill curated Self, Observed in collaboration with the NCMA Education Department. Exhibition Dates: October 30, 2011 - January 22, 2012, in the East Building, Level B in the NC Museum of Art. For more information click here.
Collective Memory
Assistant Professor Sheryl Oring held a public performance called "Collective Memory" in New York City's Bryant Park over the Sept. 11th weekend. Oring, who has a long history of creating interactive public art projects, wants people to consider how they would like the world to remember 9-11. A pool of 10 typists set up an area to receive the public on the park's Upper Terrace and ask passersby: "What would you like the world to remember about 9/11?" Answers were typed verbatim on small sheets of white paper and collected for use in a traveling exhibition that will first be shown as part of the Department of Art Faculty Biennial at UNCG's Weatherspoon Art Museum Oct. 1-Dec.
See all the cards typed as part of Collective Memory:
New resports about Collective Memory:
Graduate Students at the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy
The Art Department, in conjunction with the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School, inaugurated its first annual Summer Study Initiative at the Biennale in Venice. MFA students at the end of the first year of the MFA program travelled to Italy with Professors Lawrence Jenkens and Chris Cassidy for an intensive, nine-day seminar at what is still the most important international art exhibition in the world. And intense it was! We spent hours at the official Biennale venues and at dozens of satellite exhibits throughout La Serenissima, Italy's grand city of canals, ancient alleyways, palaces and magnificent churches. Conversations about what we saw often lasted late into the night, lubricated by the fine wines that come from the north of Italy. When not absorbing contemporary art, we were able to see some of the great masterpieces of Italian art and architecture from Giotto through Palladio and Tiepolo.
The first Summer Study Initiative was a resounding success, and the Department looks forward to many more at places around the world of contemporary art in the years to come.
We Welcome Sheryl Oring, Assistant Professor of Digital Art and New Media
Sheryl Oring joins us this fall in the Design area and with a specific focus in digital art and new media. Professor Oring just received her MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego, although she has a long and distinguished exhibition record that goes back well before her graduate school experience. To quote from her own artist's statement, Professor Oring is "an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses and questions technology and its role in society through projects that incorporate both old and new media to tell stories, examine public opinion and foster open exchange." For more information on Sheryl Oring's works and projects, please visit iwishtosay.org.
We are incredibly pleased that Professor Oring has joined us in the Art Department, and we extend a warm welcome to her and her family.
Assistant Professor Jennifer Meanley had her first international solo exhibition at the Beaux-Arts des Ameriques gallery in Montreal - June 2011.
Professor Meanley's exhibition, The Braided Ilex included her most recent large scale works on paper in which she explores the medium of painterly collage. This exhibition also featured a number of her smaller monotype prints. Mount Holyoke College's Elizabeth Small Professor of English, Lois Brown wrote the accompanying catalog essay for the exhibition, excerpted here, "Ms. Meanley's ambitious and probing aesthetic produces multiple points of access in these compositions: a viewer's eye is drawn, taken, and returned to multiple focal points in pieces enriched by exquisite color, evocative shadows, and soulful shapes. The works absorb their very color and silhouettes from rich earth and vibrant waters. The landscapes of each are masterful layerings and bold demarcations of story, elements, textures, and dimensions."
Billy Lee, Professor of Art, spent summer in China teaching postgraduate master class on Abstract Sculpture
Billy Lee was the lead foreign professor invited by the China National Sculpture Magazine and China Sculpture Professional Committee who sponsored this program. Students were selected and hand picked by the committee from all over China, most of whom were faculty members from various art academies and universities. The course culminated with Billy signing and awarding students certificates of completion, and an exhibition of over seventy sculptures as well as a forum discussing the condition of contemporary sculpture and art education in China. It was a lively discussion, as his course attracted many faculty members from the surrounding universities and academies as well as artists, theorist and critics. He has been asked to write articles for publication for the sculpture magazine. Whilst in Beijing, Professor Lee was also invited to participate in an International Sculpture Exhibition "Blue Symphony", which took place in the coastal city of NanDaihe, which is the summer residence of the Chinese government.
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Elizabeth Perrill, Assistant Professor of Art History, Wins Prestigious ACLS Fellowship
Elizabeth Perrill, assistant professor of art history, was awarded an ACLS Research Fellowship for Fall 2011 to continue her project studying the aesthetic and cultural changes visible in the form of Zulu beer pots. Professor Perrill, who is an expert in the contemporary art of Southern Africa and the Zulu people in particular and who teaches a wide variety of classes in African and African diaspora art, will split her research time, which continues through Spring 2012 with a junior faculty research leave, between Greensboro and South Africa. As much as we'll miss her, we wish Dr. Perrill a productive leave, and we look forward to hearing about and reading the results of her exciting work.
Heather Holian presents animation research at Pixar Animation Studios
On August 11, Heather Holian, assistant professor of art history, presented her paper, "An Animated Debate: Animation as Fine Art?" followed by a panel discussion with artists and animators from Pixar. During her one week stay, Professor Holian conducted interviews and gathered research for a book-length study.
Student Excellence Awards - Spring 2011
Student Excellence Awards went to 2 Art undergraduates this year. Excellence Awards, awarded through the Lloyd International Honors College, are UNCG's highest academic awards to undergraduates. To qualify, students must be seniors, must have a GPA of 3.7 or greater, and must be nominated by an academic department or interdisciplinary major.
Congratulations!!!
Anne Godden (Sculpture)
Lauren Ling (Design)
UNCG's Future Enrollment Looks Sounds
The Art Department is thrilled to welcome what is practically a freshman class to our extended family, and we congratulate Jon Smith and his fiance on the birth of their daughter Luna in February and we welcome them both to Greensboro this summer! Elizabeth Perrill's daughter, Matilda, shares Luna's birthday, and we offer felicitations to her and Laurent. Arton Ragsdale and his wife celebrated the Fourth of July with the birth of their daughter, Lillian, and finally Chris and Barbara Thomas collaborated on another successful work of art, welcoming their son James on August 2, which is, the Department Head notes, an auspicious day since it is also his birthday! Our love, congratulations, and best wishes to all our new parents.
The admissions office at UNCG has been warned to expect a bump up in applications to the class of 2033.