Last Friday night, the University of Tampa’s Scarfone – Hartley Gallery opened its annual Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition. A sizable crowd of UT students and faculty as well as community members attended the opening and enjoyed the work and refreshments provided. The crowd came to see the art work of their teachers and peers. The show had it all —from mixed media to ink printing to digital photography.
The art exhibition featured a variety of pieces. One series was “Altered” by Chris Valle. Valle said that the entire series contains 80 works of art. “I chose these five because they all lined up very well,” he said. “They go from tall to short, back to tall forming a ‘V’.” The pieces featured last night were “Saint Kid of Rock,” “Saint Paris of Gucci,” “Saint James of Akron,” “Saint Lady of Gaga” and “Saint Jacko.” What is interesting about these pieces is that there is an iconic religious feature underneath a pop culture icon.
Most of Valle’s work represents pop culture and how it affects society. One of the featured images, “Saint James of Akron,” is of LeBron James over a religious picture of Saint Francis of Assisi. “It looks like he is drawing the tattoos on LeBron’s arm,” said Valle. “The pen from the Saint Francis image appears to be inscribing the tattoo of the area code of Akron, Ohio.”
Joseph Gamble, professor at UT, liked the “Altered” series. Gamble said the way it was set up was aesthetically pleasing, and that “the pieces have humor and wit.” Alicia Gonzalez, senior entrepreneurship major, also liked the pieces. “I liked his art because it mixes religion with pop culture,” she said. “Typically it’s a taboo subject and people don’t compare them.”
Another interesting installation was a set of pieces by Santiago Echeverry. Take a look, and notice that each of the collections are on opposite sides of the gallery. “They are on opposite sides of the gallery because they represent two different statements,” Echeverry said. He said that the photography of Morocco and video “Maroc 4 Algérie 0” was his personal “voyage journal,” while the other piece was a political statement.
The most fascinating part of his photo journal project was that he took many of the pictures and the video with his iPhone. “I could blend,” Echeverry said, meaning that he could video people and take pictures without lugging heavy equipment around. He also said that the subjects were themselves when he took the pictures. They didn’t “act” for the camera.
His other works surrounded a more serious subject: Gay/Lesbian Rights. Echeverry created this series based off a poem by Ed Madden titled ‘Prick.’ Throughout his art, he has a male model posing with certain phrases from the poem. One example was a piece with the model with the phrase “where the arrow goes matters” with an “X” over his heart.
“It’s pertinent to what’s going on,” Echeverry said. “I feel like we’re treated as third class citizens.” Francesca Erni, a senior music major, likes to look at her professor’s work at the art shows and has been to the past three. She said that Echeverry’s “Prick” video was eye-opening. “It accurately portrays the dangers of labeling in society,” Erni said.
Kendra Frorup is another artist that was featured in the show. Her work portrays and is a response to her travels over the summer in Tanzania. “It was different than I imagined,” Frorup said. “I expected to come home with African patterns and prints, but all I saw was a fight for survival.” Many of her works had boxing gloves or an item related to boxing. When asked, she said that her theme was “fighting for survival”. Many of her pieces were mixed media with photography, painting and almost sculpture-like aspects. She talked about how everywhere she looked, there were people struggling to get by.
In one of her pieces, there is a man holding at least ten pairs of shoes. This was an everyday occurrence during her trip. One experience that touched her was her visit to the junk yard. Frorup went to take pictures of the children living there, and they just smiled and said, “Please take our picture!” This inspired Frorup for her piece “Earth Cry.”
“It’s actually an interactive piece,” she said. This piece is made up of an old punching bag with a book of prints of the junk yard children behind it. The viewers can flip through the art, but here is the best part. The viewer can actually take a print home with them. “I want the viewer to be able to take this home as memorabilia,” Frorup said. John Capouya, Assistant Professor of Journalism, said that Frorup’s work was “powerful, beautiful and original.” “Kendra Frorup is kicking ass!” he said.
The show took one week to set up, from Monday to a few hours before the gallery opened Friday night. “They are all intensive pieces,” said Dorothy Cowden, Scarfone- Hartley Gallery Director. “All the artists want to work until they get it right.” The Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition will be in the gallery until Oct. 6.
“Every year, it just keeps getting better and better,” Cowden said. The gallery is open to anyone on Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 am and 4 pm and on Saturdays from 1-4 pm. This show only comes once a year, so go and see it!
Laurel Sanchez can be reached at lsanchez@spartans.ut.edu.