Wright Gallery to display work by eight artists in 2016-17 exhibits

Exhibits featuring work by eight accomplished artists working in a variety of media will be on display in 2016-17 at the Wright Gallery, located in the College of Architecture on the second floor of Building A in the Langford Architecture Center.

FALL 2016 EXHIBITS

“At the Edge”

By multiple artists

Sept. 13 – Oct. 12

A group of five Austin-based artists push the boundaries of drawing and examine spatial relationships, scale and forms in “At the Edge,” a Sept. 13 – Oct. 12, 2016 exhibit that kicks off the 2016-17 Wright Gallery schedule. An opening reception is scheduled 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20.

“The graphite, ink and opaque watercolor pieces will vary in subject matter, but each artist plays with shifts in perception and the definition of drawing,” said Rebecca Rothfus Harrell, one of the exhibit’s artists and its curator.

Each artist brings a unique perspective and style to the exhibit.

[ Shannon Faseler] (http://www.shannonfaseler.com) bases her work on climate change and its effects, including floods, glaciers and drought-affected landscapes that evoke the fragility and instability of society’s “seemingly certain” reality.

“I seek to make paintings, drawings and installations that challenge customary views of aesthetics in our natural world,” she said.

[ Alyson Fox] (http://www.alysonfox.com) , who holds university degrees in photography, sculpture, installation art and operates a thriving business designing limited-edition clothing, handmade jewelry and much more, is, “quite simply, boundless,” said Leigh Patterson of FvF, an online publication that profiles people with diverse creative and cultural backgrounds.

“Alyson’s work can be defined by her unique aesthetic, which quietly connects her projects in seamless yet subtle ways through the use of geometry, clean lines, soft palettes, rudimentary shapes and simplicity that is careful but never boring,” said Patterson.

[ Rebecca Rothfus Harrell] (http://rebeccarothfus.com) ‘s work is rooted in a longstanding interest in ever-evolving landscapes, human interventions in the natural world, and microscopic and macroscopic intricacies.

“My paintings and collages are explorations of form, color, structure and space, used to create feelings of surreal environments that bounce back and forth between natural and man-made,” she said.

[ Bethany Johnson] (http://bethanyjo.com) ‘s drawings refer to the mathematical measurement of a grid, as well as a mechanical recording process. Her images explore information loss and fragmentation.

“I intend my work to operate between science and poetry, at once methodical and impulsive, objective and subjective, cerebral and emotional, and always inquisitive and searching,” she said. “I seek unexpected convergences and compatibilities between otherwise disparate modes of understanding.”

[ Alexandra Robinson] (http://alexandrarobinsonart.com/home.html) ’s work is based in the connection between knowing and understanding. “As long as I can remember,” she said, “I have been interested in perception, both as an internalized mental landscape and outward connection to the land.”

Her goal, she added, is “to generate work that at once discloses and withholds, that provides small spaces of clarity as we continue on our way.”

“True Believers”

By Mark Schatz

Oct. 24 - Dec. 15

In “True Believers,” a Wright Gallery exhibit of Ohio-based artist [Mark Schatz] (http://www.markschatz.com) ’ sculptures that debuts Oct. 24, 2016, Schatz imagines a population trying to make sense of an indifferent universe.

An exhibit opening reception is scheduled 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24.

Drawing from utopian communities, geological forms, insect behaviors, folded maps, and chance occurrences, Schatz explores people’s desire to create order, and even wonder, out of chaos.

Schatz, whose sculpture, installation, drawings, and photography and has shown widely, is associate professor and Foundations Program coordinator for the School of Art at Kent State University.

SPRING 2017 EXHIBITS

“Anonymous Women”

By Patty Carroll

January 24 – March 16

[ Patty Carroll] (http://pattycarroll.com) ’s photographs of women and various objects covered in drapery —commentaries on women and their obsession with the home — have won awards in international competitions and have been featured in the [Huffington Post] (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/anonymous-women_n_4549973.html) , the [British Journal of Photography] (http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/08/patty-carrolls-domestic-pleasures/) , [The Cut] (http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/11/patty-carroll-women.html) , and many other publications. Her work will be displayed in the Wright Gallery Jan. 24 – March 16, 2016.

An opening reception is scheduled 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. January 24.

The photos are based on Carroll’s experience as a youth in suburban Chicago. “The home,” she said, “was a place of perfection and harmony, free from harsh realities of the city, without crime, or messy interiors, where everyone’s drapes and sofa matched, where people were normal, without dark little secrets.”

“It was at time when the woman’s place was in the home,” she said. “I am photographically creating worlds that debunk, critique and satirize these myths of claustrophobic perfection.”

“Blocks”
By Brian Piana

March 21 – May 25

[ Brian Piana] (http://www.brianpiana.com/about/) ’s abstract visualizations of data mined from the Internet, which provides him with much of his source material, will be featured in “Blocks,” an exhibit in the Wright Gallery March 21 – May 25, 2016.

An opening reception is scheduled 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. March 21.

The exhibition will feature paintings, site-specific installations, and dynamic online works that change in real time. For instance, Piana said one if his installations involved “searching Twitter's public timeline for the words ‘red’, ‘green’, ‘blue’, and ‘yellow’ in real-time, then presenting the results as a field of vivid vertical bands of color.”

Piana, who earned a [Master of Science In Visualization] (http://viz.arch.tamu.edu/graduate/ms-viz-curriculum/) in 2000 and a [Bachelor of Environmental Design] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/undergraduate/) degree in 1997 at Texas A&M, is a professor of art and design at San Jacinto College. He has exhibited his work at FotoFest and the Lawndale Art Center in Houston and the Maryland Institute College of Art.