Emory & Henry Presents IN-SIGHT-2012: Art Faculty Biennial
In conjunction with the Virginia Highlands Festival, Emory & Henry College presents IN-SIGHT-2012: E & H Art Faculty Biennial. This exhibition will feature works by Charles W. Goolsby, H. Lee Jones, Anna Kaarina Nenonen, and Michael Wright.
The exhibition will be held at The 1912 Gallery on campus from July 28 through September 8 and every day during the Virginia Highlands Festival from noon until 5 pm. Following the festival the exhibit will be open from Tuesday-Saturdays from noon until 5 pm.
In addition these artists will discuss their work at a discussion on Tuesday evening, August 28th beginning at 7:30 in Van Dyke Center on the campus of Emory & Henry. The gallery will open at 6:30 pm for viewing prior to the panel and again following for a reception with the artists.
Goolsby, art department chair and professor of painting, printmaking, drawing, design and art history, creates works inspired by landscapes that have been significantly altered by human intervention. Partly informed by traditions from nineteenth century American Landscape painting, he transforms the twenty-first century environment into ambitious oil paintings that celebrate beauty and monumentality. By celebrating the industrial beauty and its impact on the environment, it is his intent to open conversations concerning our resources.
Jones, professor of digital art, 2D and web design, has moved from his earlier abstracted digital images to photographs of landscapes that bring attention to the everyday. In his new work he is photographing an everyday object, the dumpster, and its environment in order not only to draw attention to it but to also inspire viewers to pay closer attention to the world around them.
Nenonen, professor of art history and design, creates oil paintings and mixed media pieces that concentrate on the themes she experiences as most fascinating: nature in its various forms, plants, animals and insects. Her representational renderings may incorporate poisonous plants, butterflies and dragonflies, and sometimes writing, thereby adding to the symbolic dimensions of the works. The pieces are replete with undercurrents of beauty, fragility, death, the battle of good and evil, and spiritual re-birth.
Wright, professor of photography, continues his portrait series featuring people from all over the world and diverse walks of life who have completed, attempted, or hope to one day conquer the Appalachian Trail. Since returning to his hometown of Damascus, Virginia just over a decade ago, he has met thousands of hikers who have either settled close by or make the pilgrimage back to town each spring to see old friends and meet new ones. Wright’s portraits are an attempt to capture a glimpse into the spirit of these sojourners.
The 1912 Gallery is located one mile off I-81, exit 26 in the historic train depot in the town of Emory. The exhibition is free and open to the public. After August 12 gallery hours resume to Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 pm. For further information, call 276-944-6846 or atcoulth@ehc.edu.
