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Georgia Southern arts alumni return to campus to inspire next generation of Eagles
“Celebrate and support your community.”
That’s the message from Double Eagle Jean Gray Mohs, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting in 2002 and later earned her Master of Fine Arts in teaching in 2008.
This mantra of supporting and engaging with the community began while she was still a student herself. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she and a group of her colleagues launched their own artist collective, Stillmoreroots, around the state.
“It was a really meaningful community to help explore what we were, to create challenging, accessible art, and to create a space for dialogue with the community,” said Mohs. “There’s an internal support group that you could always throw any idea out and be accepting of.”
That group recently celebrated 20 years of exhibitions with the show Common Thread | Common Ground exhibition at the Kalmanson Gallery in Swainsboro, Georgia, and included more Eagle alumni such as Nick Nelson, Anthony Faris, Brandon Tatom and Desmal Purcell.
These sustained connections with the Georgia Southern arts community are what brought her to another alumni-connected art exhibit: “Continuum: Biennial Alumni Exhibition.” She, along with 15 other Eagles, have submitted their pieces to the display hosted by their alma mater.
This monthlong exhibit is presented by the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art (BFSDoArt) at Georgia Southern University, and runs from Aug. 10 to Sept. 14 in the Contemporary and University galleries of the Center for Art & Theatre in Statesboro. A reception will be held Friday, Sept. 2, from 5 to 7 p.m. The events are free, and the public is welcome.
“Continuum” highlights the diverse professional art practices and continued creative endeavors of BFSDoArt alumni. The exhibition showcases an interdisciplinary selection of painting, drawing, small metals, digital design, ceramics, photography, prints, textiles, sculpture and more.
“This is a fantastic showing of what our alumni are up to these days” said Gallery Director Jason Hoelscher, Ph.D. “The exhibition features work ranging from relatively recent graduates to those who finished their studies in decades past. Given this breadth, it’s interesting to see the spectrum of approaches–not only in terms of discipline or medium, but also in terms of those continually exploring new artistic approaches, and those who relentlessly refine and perfect their technique to open up new areas of what might otherwise seem to be established modes of artmaking.”
The exhibition features new and recent artwork by Ashley Anderson, Elizabeth Debban, Mariana S. Depetris, William T. Dooley, Lindsey Gerow, Thyatira Grant, Susan Harmon, D’Antre Harris, Nikolaus James, Nicole James, Zak Kelley, Tyre McDonald, Jean Gray Mohs, Cynthia L. Rodday, Brian Russell, and Jing Zhou.
Student juried exhibitions on view Feb. 28 to March 4 at Center for Art & Theatre
Juried 2022 and Form & Content are annual juried exhibitions of student work. The exhibitions will be on view from Feb. 28 to March 4 at the Center for Art & Theatre’s Contemporary and University Galleries.
Juried 2022 features work created by Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art undergraduate students in a variety of media including drawing, painting, fibers, jewelry, multimedia, mixed media, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics.
The Form & Content exhibition features work created in art foundation courses including drawing, two-dimensional design, three-dimensional design, and digital foundations.
Both exhibitions were juried by Savannah-based artist Will Penny. Penny received a diploma in Fine Art from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and a BFA and MFA in Painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design. Penny’s artworks dissolve traditional boundaries of art and design. His art explores tensions between the tangible space a painting inhabits, the impact of digital technology on fabricated forms and illusionistic environments.
Winners will be awarded during the reception on Friday, March 4. Light refreshments will be served.
Yanique Norman’s ‘Introducing the Black-Eyed Susans’ on view at the Center for Art & Theatre on Statesboro Campus
Introducing the Black-Eyed Susans is a series of breathtaking works created by Atlanta-based artist Yanique Norman. This body of work is being showcased Nov. 8 to Dec. 1 in the Center for Art & Theatre’s University Gallery on the Georgia Southern University Statesboro Campus.
Norman will be on campus for an artist talk and reception on Monday, Nov. 15, from 5-7 p.m., with the talk beginning at 5:15 p.m. The talk will also be available via Zoom, and guests may preregister for the talk.
Introducing the Black-Eyed Susans marks Norman’s first exhibition at Georgia Southern University. This series will include a number of pieces that find the connection between abstract, textured realities and Black experience to bring the viewer art that seems to live and breathe as it is observed.
“In talking with Yanique and following her work recently, I am excited to see what kind of catalytic intensity she brings to the CAT galleries at Georgia Southern University,” said gallery director Jason Hoelscher Ph.D. “These are intense and complex times, and the intensity of Norman’s work might be just what we need to bring this complexity into focus.”
Norman works in a range of media to explore alienation, identity, decolonialized futures, and the Black psychological body. She was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, and eventually traveled to the United States at 12 years old. She completed her BFA at Georgia State University to then go on and receive her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, and her work has been shown in (and collected by) museums and public collections nationwide.
Visiting artist Andrew Kuebeck’s ‘MANual Labor’ on view at Center for Art & Theatre on Statesboro Campus
“MANual Labor,” an exciting exhibition from artist Andrew Kuebeck featuring small metal and wood sculptures, prints and functional jewelry that highlight the male body, will be on display through Oct. 15 at Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro Campus in the University Gallery, located in the Center for Art & Theatre.
An artist talk and reception will be on Sept. 30 from 5 to 7 p.m., with the talk beginning at 5:15 p.m. Guests may attend the artist talk in person or virtually. Guests may register to attend via Zoom. Both the exhibition and artist talk are free and open to the public.
“I look forward to Andrew Kuebeck’s exhibition for a number of reasons, not least of which is his ability to meld the medium of small metals to a range of social issues and to personal expression,” said gallery director Jason Hoelscher, Ph.D. “Andrew served as a visiting artist at Georgia Southern in early 2020 and was a real hit with the students, who appreciated not only his incredible technical know-how but also his ability to explore complex themes through a medium sometimes focused more on visual richness than on thematic intensity. Both Andrew’s exhibition and artist talk are not to be missed.”
Kuebeck is an assistant professor and area head of the jewelry/metals/enameling program at Kent State University. Kuebeck works in a variety of formats ranging from functional jewelry to sculptural objects and vessels. He has lectured and taught workshops nationally on the incorporation of photographic images into jewelry pieces and vessels. Kuebeck has also exhibited regionally and nationally, and his work has appeared in numerous publications including 500 Enameled Objects, 21st Century Jewelry, Wrap, Stitch, Fold, and Rivet, and Metalsmith and Niche magazines. He was also a 2012 SNAG Emerging Artist.
Ceramicist Donté K. Hayes shares work through a virtual artist talk
The Center for Art and Theatre at Georgia Southern University is hosting a virtual artist talk Georgia-based artist Donté K. Hayes on Tuesday, April 20 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Hayes uses ceramics to explore themes in Afrofuturism, a projected vision of an imagined future that critiques the historical and cultural events of the African diaspora and the black experience in the Middle Passage. His work is influenced by hip-hop, history and science fiction, as well as and visual traditions from the Caribbean, South America, the Southern United States and the African continent.
“My students and I are excited to hear from Donté Hayes and find out more about his work and his career so far,” says gallery director Jason Hoelscher. “Donté was scheduled to visit last spring but we had to reschedule due to the pandemic shutdown. That was unfortunate at the time, but in retrospect it just means he’s had an additional year to push his work even further. Hayes’s work touches on a range of important ideas and issues at play in these first years of the 2020s, so tune in and hear what he has to say.”
Recent art exhibitions include group shows at the Museum of Science + Industry Chicago, Illinois, the Association of Visual Arts in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta. He has also been included in recent juried exhibitions from the 2019 NCECA Student Juried Show at the Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2018 River to River Midwest Regional Ceramic Juried Show at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hayes was selected as 2019 Ceramics Monthly Magazine Emerging Artist and was the 2017 recipient of the University of Iowa Arts Fellowship.