News

William Paterson University Galleries Presents Annual Art Faculty Exhibition from September 8 through October 16

A selection of recent artworks created by 21 members of the art faculty at William Paterson University in Wayne will be featured in an exhibition at the University Galleries in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts from September 8 through October 16, 2014. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on September 20 and October 11 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Sunday, September 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. A faculty panel discussion is scheduled for Tuesday, September 28 from 11:00 a.m. to noon.

The exhibition, in the South Gallery, provides insight into the diverse artistic practices of the University’s art faculty, which includes painters, sculptors, printmakers, and designers in every media. Works featured in the exhibit include examples of painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, collage, furniture design, photography, textile design and printmaking.

Michael Rees employs both physical and augmented reality images to create a disjointed sculptural experience in Vanitas: Matrix. The viewer must piece together elements of the object, image, and virtual object interaction to complete their perceptual understanding of the work. Rees is actively involved with the Digital Stone Project and serves as director of the Center for New Art at William Paterson; therefore, technology plays a vital role in his artistic practice. In an effort to share his expertise with his students, Rees obtained a 7-axis robot for the Center through a generous gift from an anonymous donor. “We are really excited to have such a capable machine in our curriculum. We are the only art program in New Jersey with such robust and advanced equipment,” Rees states. Plans are currently underway for students, faculty and visiting artists to conduct research and developmental projects with the new machinery.

Gerald Slota experiments with printing techniques, mark making, and alchemy in his photography to invoke a psychological and visceral response from the viewer. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, VICE, and The New Yorker, among others. He was recently commissioned to create a large-scale mural for the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida as part of the exhibition Imagining Eden: Photographers Discover the Everglades. The two photographs in the Faculty Exhibition are work prints from this installation, for which he reimagined the Seminole Indian wars.

Thomas Uhlein comments on current gun laws in the United States through a graphic design poster titled With Liberty and Justice for All? During the fall semester, he will be on sabbatical to explore typeface design, specifically studying the similarities and differences between serif and sans serif letterform construction. His project will culminate in the creation of two new serif and sans serif typefaces for use in print and on digital reading.

He Zhang, associate professor of art history, recently traveled to archaeological sites and museums in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and India as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to research iconography in tapestries and a group of rare knotted carpets discovered in Xinjiang, China. She presents a slideshow of images from her visits that detail her efforts to connect the two cultures through the textile medium.

Other faculty artists included in the exhibition are Stephanie Beck, Miriam Bisceglia, James Brown, Giovanna Cecchetti, Kyle Coniglio, Angela DeLaura, Eileen Foti, Andrea Geller, David Horton, Alan Lazarus, Elaine Lorenz, Charles Magistro, Gina Miccinilli, Leslie Nobler, Lily Prince, Lauren Razzore, Wes Sherman, and Bill Truran.

The exhibition is one of three on view concurrently in the University Galleries. Raymond Saá: New Work, on view in the Court Gallery, juxtaposes monochromatic and polychromatic compositions made up of abstract and botanical forms. In the East Gallery, Artie Van Blarcum: Honorable Mention presents the work of a self-taught photographer who experimented with alternative techniques, and whose work was donated to the University Art Collection by George Tice.

This exhibition is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print educational materials are available. For additional information, please call the William Paterson University Galleries at 973-720-2654.

# # #