Art & Design Faculty Exhibition
7 September – 17 October
Opening Reception, Wednesday 7 September, 5 – 7pm
Maureen Caouette, Joseph DiGregorio, Dyan Gulovsen, Alice Lambert,
Timmary Leary, Darrell Matsumoto, Joseph Ray, Sumiyo Toribe,
Jason Travers, David Wackell, Michael Yefko
Mara Trachtenberg: A Decadent World
26 October – 2 December
Opening Reception, Wednesday 26 October, 5 – 7:00 p.m.
Conversation with the Artist and Gallery Director Darrell Matsumoto, 5:30 p.m.
Catalog available: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1175468
Visit A Decadent World
It is with great pleasure that we present Mara Trachtenberg and her world of wonder. As young children, girls were indoctrinated with stories and myths, which range from sleeping beauties, princesses who are concealed, wicked stepmothers to defeat – usually with the assistance of some stereotypically handsome prince in tights. Myths attempt to form values and preserve the past. Trachtenberg has learned her lessons well and turned the tables on old myth-makers. She has re-fashioned and created a new world to inhabit. Not unlike other myth-making stories, there lies a complexity inherent within. She combines her interest in nature-culture and the fantastic to form new environments to explore, not unlike a visit to “Wonderland.”
|Staged, fabricated, and constructed photographic work has been an essential practice for artists for the past 50 years. The rise of this contemporary practice is linked to the tumult of the mid-1960s. Society was at odds with itself, and the art world was also shifting under its feet. The rise of Pop, Op, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art set the stage for constructed photo-based narrative art practice. In the 1970s, 80s, and beyond, artists such as Barbara Kasten, Robert Cumming, Zeke Berman, Laurie Simmons, James Casebere, and Sandy Skoglund, (just to mention a few), represent historic place markers of import. The work of Mara Trachtenberg, significantly contributes to this contemporary practice.
Darrell Matsumoto
Director of Art Programs and Gallery
23rd Annual High School Exhibition
Peter Marcus: New American Family
15 March – April 19
Opening Reception, Wednesday 15 March, 5 – 7:00 p.m.
Conversation with the Artist and Gallery Director Darrell Matsumoto, 5:30 p.m.
Catalog available: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1245742
The Personal Portrait Head
It is with great pleasure we present New American Family, large-scale mixed media portraits by Peter Marcus. A master print technician, Marcus has long experimented and pushed the limits of traditional printmaking, combining multiple techniques resulting in a complex monoprint, relying on mark making and collage to complete the process.
The subject of his portraits are his family members and friends. Marcus regularly uses multiple faces/heads in his compositions, evoking a family album of sorts. The subjects compel the viewer to look back and search for their histories. The faces present themselves with smiles, not unlike snapshot photographs that are familiar, triggering fond memories.
The portrait head is an iconic representation of the person. The image intends to venerate, lift, glorify the persona. Historically, early representations of the portrait-head tended to follow idealized visual conventions minimizing the individual distinctions. Through itshistoricity the contemporary representation of person has evolved to reflect individual character and appearance. Since the invention of photography, the ubiquity of the photographic portrait, through the democratization of the medium, simply enables immediate connection with the subject as person. We are familiar with and are drawn to the human face/head. Marcus presents his faces, which have undergone his artistic intervention and treatment, creating evocative portraits. In New American Family, the visage of his subjects become his super-sized family album.
Darrell Matsumoto
Director of Art Programs and Gallery
Senior Art Exhibition
28 April – 21 May
Opening Reception, Wednesday 28 April, 5:00 – 7:00pm
Lauren Nicole DiPillo, Art Therapy
Danielle K. Gordon, Art Therapy
Hillary Ina Graves, Graphic Design
Ariana P. Manzi, Art Therapy
Kayleigh K. Price, Art Therapy
Kelsie E. Shedden, Art Education