Author: ezellefrow

The Department of Art and Design and Bradley University Galleries are proud to present our 2020 Student Thesis Portfolios.

MFA, MA & BFA Thesis Portfolios: bradleythesis2020.com

7^th Central Time Ceramics
Heuser Art Gallery, Hartmann Center Gallery
Canceled until further notice

This exhibition is the seventh installment of the biennial juried exhibition of ceramic artwork, Central Time Ceramics. The show brings together ceramic artwork from across the Central Time Zone to a city not only centrally located but also commonly associated with the central United States: Peoria, Illinois. Assembled in Peoria at the Bradley University Galleries are 51 ceramic works by 36 artists living and working in the Central Time Zone. From Minnesota to Texas, the locales represented are as varied as each artist’s aesthetic, yet the level of craftsmanship and innovation remains high throughout.

“Central” often refers to being in the middle, inferring sameness or mediocrity, yet the multiplicity of styles, methods and materials in this exhibition is anything but. This year’s juror is Doug Jeppesen. Jeppesen holds a BA in Art History and a BFA in Art with an emphasis in ceramics from the University of Tulsa, and a MFA from Northern Illinois University.  Doug holds the title of Associate Professor of Art/Ceramics at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Illinois where he has taught full time since 1998. 

Jeppesen has superbly selected a diverse group of work full of color, technical expertise, and experimentation. This exhibition may be centrally located yet it depicts the Central Time Zone as a multifarious region including diverse perspectives on the materials, methods, and styles of contemporary ceramic art.

The 7th Central Time Ceramics Artists:

Troy Aiken – South Bend, IN
Kenneth Baskin – Lake Charles, LA
Chris Berti – Urbana, IL
Jill Birschbach – Evanston, IL
Shannon Blakey – Columbia, MO
Tracy Burton – Chicago, IL
Grace Chien – Peoria, IL
G. E. Colpitts – Belvidere, IL
Angela Dieffenbach – Chicago, IL
Keith Ekstam – Springfield, MO
Paul Eshelman – Elizabeth, IL
Teresa Frisch – Bethalto, IL
John Gargano – Lafayette, LA
Mike Gesiakowski – Saint Louis, MO
Jennifer Holt – Decatur, IL
Meg Howton – Carbondale, IL
Kevin Kao – Saint Louis, MO
Patty Kochaver – Skokie, IL
Chris Leonard – McAllen, TX
Sean Lofton – Columbia, MO
Ronny Loyd – League City, TX
Antonio Martinez – Lawrence, KS
Susan Messer McBride – Chicago, IL
Will McComb – Oxford, MS
Eric Ordway – Columbia. MO
Lisa Orr – Austin, TX
Joel Pisowicz – Chesterton, IN
Megan Quinn – Rock Island, IL
Joyce St. Clair Voltz – Cedar Rapids, IA
Mike Stumbras – Riverside, MO
Meghan Sullivan – Appleton, WI
Will Van Dyke – Evanston, IL
Rimas VisGirda – Champaign, IL
Michael Ware – Milwaukee, WI
Mary Wilhelm – Normal, IL
Lisa York – Savanna, IL

Artwork by Jennifer Holt of Decatur, Illinois
Breathe (Version 3), Slip Cast & Assembled Porcelain , 2018

Exhibition: February 12 – March 13 – Red Door Gallery, Heuser Art Center 3rd Floor
Gallery Hours: 2-5pm M-Th, 2-4:30pm F, and by appointment
Workshop: February 14, 3:30-5:30 – Heuser Art Center, Photo Area

Join us for an exhibition featuring the artwork of photographer Millie Tibbs. Tibbs’ work will be on display February 12 – March 13 in the Red Door Gallery located on the third floor of Heuser Art Center.

Tibbs is an associate professor of photography at Wayne State University. She holds an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is the recipient of two MacDowell Colony fellowships, as well as multiple national and international artist residency awards. Her work has been published by the Humble Arts Foundation, NYC and the Aperture Foundation, and is held in the permanent collections of the George Eastman Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Chrysler Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and the RISD Museum.

Learn more about the artist and work: www.milleetibbs.com/

Exhibition: February 6 – 20, Heuser Art Center 2^nd Floor Catwalk Gallery
Reception: February 6, 6-7:30pm

YEAR IN (RE)VIEW is an undergraduate art exhibition that features the artwork of nine select BU undergraduate students; Amanda Brito, Taylor Fawcett, Matthew Hoffert, Megan Le, Dylan Pashke, Sydney Ryan, Theresa Sample, Brandon Towns, and Kendall Welch. This exhibit will be on display in the Heuser Art Center 2nd Floor Catwalk Gallery February 6 – 20. A reception event will be held February 6th from 6-7:30pm. This exhibition was curated and organized by BU graduate student Peter Ahart.

Hours:

Monday – Thursday: 9am – 7pm
Friday: 9am – 4pm
and by appointment

Hold Fast – Margaret LeJeune, Sabbatical Exhibition
Hartmann Center Gallery
January 22 – February 20
Lecture: February 20, 5pm – Horowitz Auditorium, Caterpillar Global Communications Center
Reception: February 20, 6-7:30pm

The exhibition Hold Fast by Associate Professor of Photography Margaret LeJeune will be on display in Hartmann Center Gallery January 22 – February 20. Join us for a Visual Voices lecture presented by LeJeune on February 20th in Horowitz Auditorium, which will be immediately followed by an artist reception in the gallery.

This exhibition features five bodies of photographic work created over the course of LeJeune’s year long 2018-2019 sabbatical. Issues of climate change, habitat loss, native species, ecology, and our complicated relationship to the sea are explored in these works.

Learn more about the artist at: margaretlejeune.com

Hartmann Center Gallery
1423 St. James Ave
Peoria, IL 61625

Monday – Friday: 9am – 5pm
and by appointment

Dornith Doherty – The Bunn Lectureship in Photography
Heuser Art Gallery
January 13 – February 20
Lecture: February 6, 5pm – Horowitz Auditorium, Caterpillar Global Communications Center
Reception: February 6, 6-7:30pm

This photography exhibition by Texas-based artist Dornith Doherty intertwines science and art, showcasing the planet’s botanical diversity through 17 images from seed banks across the world.

For nearly 10 years, Doherty traveled the world from Australia to Russia photographing seed banks, which are designed to preserve the world’s crops and plants against species loss brought by blight, development, global warming, pests, unexpected change, and war. Long interested in how humans shape the land, Doherty explored seed vaults and the activities of their research scientists. Starting with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, she visited key facilities across five continents, including the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, just south of the North Pole on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. Svalbard, one of more than 1,700 seed banks across the globe, is special because it houses duplicate seeds from other vaults to serve as a backup in case of a natural or man-made disaster. Because of its location, it is better positioned to withstand the potential aftermath of global warming or other man-made global disasters.

Spurred by the completion of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Dornith Doherty began Archiving Eden in 2008 as a way to explore the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate change and the extinction of natural species.

This program has been made possible by the generous support of The Bunn Lectureship in Photography series. Because of this support from Bradley alums, Jacob and Lorrie Bunn, for over 20 years The Bunn Lectureship in Photography has brought nationally and internationally recognized photographers to Bradley’s campus. With the goal of broadening and enriching students’ educational experience, this program provides exhibitions, lectures, and workshops where students benefit from direct interaction with professional photographers.

Learn more the project and artist at: www.dornithdoherty.com/archiving-eden

Reception: December 13th 5:30-7pm, Red Door Gallery, Heuser Art Center Third Floor

Join us this Friday, December 13th from 5:30-7PM to celebrate Katelynn Shook’s Senior Capstone Exhibition at the Red Door Gallery (3rd floor Heuser Art Center). The exhibition will be on display December 6 – 12, 2019.

Gallery Hours: M – Th 12pm – 7pm, F 12pm – 4pm

Gallery Location: 1400 W Bradley Ave, Peoria IL

SACRED: MA Exhibition – Hattie Lee
Prairie Center of the Arts
December 11 – 18
Reception: December 13, 5:30-7pm

Join us for SACRED an MA Exhibition featuring the artwork of Hattie Lee. This body of work is inspired by cultural designs and Cherokee genealogy and features painting, fiber art, and intaglio printmaking. The exhibition will be on display at Prairie Center of the Arts December 11 – 18, 2019. A reception will be held on December 13th from 5:30-7pm.

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 3:00pm

Location: 1506 SW Washington Street

Red Door Gallery, Heuser Art Center Third Floor
November 1 – December 6,                                                                                                Hours: M-Th 12pm-7pm, F 12pm-4pm  
Reception: November 7, 6-7:30pm

From the Artist:

The photographs in the series Terraria Gigantica: The World under Glass frame the world’s largest enclosed landscapes as possible impossibilities: Biosphere 2’s ocean in the Arizona desert, the Henry Doorly Zoo’s desert in the Great Plains of Nebraska, Eden Project’s tropical rain forest in notoriously gray and cool Cornwall, England, and the high-elevation Cloud Forest at sea-level in Singapore. These vivaria are enclosed environments where plants are grown amidst carefully constructed representations of the natural world to entertain and educate visiting tourists. At the same time, however, they support scientific observation and research on the plants and animals housed under these ‘natural conditions’ that require human control of temperature, humidity, irrigation, insects, and weeds to cultivate otherwise impossible environments and species. Taken together, these architectural and engineering marvels stand as working symbols of our current and complex position within the natural world.

Built in the late 1980s to study complex closed systems, Biosphere 2 was designed as an airtight replica of the Earth’s environment. This glass and metal-framed structure contains a tropical rain forest, mangrove wetlands, a fog desert, savannah grassland, and an ocean with a coral reef. No longer airtight, it is repurposed toward research and education about sustaining our planet Earth, ‘Biosphere 1,’ through study of water, climate, and energy. The Henry Doorly Zoo supports both education and research on a campus with the largest indoor jungle and desert in the United States. Here, the illusionism of these immersive environments also incorporates the display of the animals that live there. The Eden Project was built with a mission to educate about environmental conservation and sustainability. It currently houses over 1 million plants and models sustainable practices in construction, waste reduction, and resource management. Like the Eden Project, the Cloud Forest in Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay is showcase for sustainable architecture and an opportunity for visitors to learn about tropical rain forest ecosystems as well as how to save them from extinction.

While the technical and aesthetic demands of these varying missions informed the physical design of these spaces, the required juxtapositions of natural and artificial elements also generate unintentionally striking visual paradoxes that can go unnoticed. In these carefully constructed exhibits, I turn away from the crowds of visitors, looking for views where the illusion gives way. In these margins, these liminal spaces, the natural and the artificial sometimes meet, overlap, and bleed together, or they collide, resist, and contrast with one another. The visual richness of these small details leads to big questions about what it means to create and contain landscapes. They ask us to think about our interactions with and attitudes about the non-human world. They ask us to consider whether these spaces supplement or replace those outside. They ask us to reflect on the distinction between the natural and the artificial. Under the glass, I frame these views and invite contemplation of nature’s future in a time of climate crisis.

Learn more about the artist: http://www.danafritz.com/

Hartmann Center Gallery
October 16 – December 20
Reception: November 7 6-7:30pm

An exhibition featuring the artwork of Sara Black + Amber Ginsburg, Sarah FitzSimons, Candace Hunter, and Vivian Visser will be held in Hartmann Center Gallery October 16 – December 20th. The work of these environmental artists includes installation, sculpture and fabric. This exhibition is organized in conjunction with the Midwest Women Artists Symposium taking place November 7th & 8th on campus.

Learn More about the Symposium

Image: Sara Black + Amber Ginsburg

7000 Marks, 2016-ongoing – Photo from SPACES Gallery, Cleveland OH