Last Friday, the RK Bailey Arts studio commenced the University of Tampa’s Art Faculty Show. The exhibit lasts until Oct. 26, 2013 and features works from Catherine Chastain- Elliot, Stephen Crompton, Santiago Echeverry, Kendra Frorup, Cory George, Lew Harris, Michael Ingold, Ina Kaur, Jack King, Brooke Sherer, Douglas Sutherland and Chris Valle.
“This event happens every year,” said Douglas Sutherland, assistant art professor. “In fact, they alternate between alumni, full time, part time and adjunct professors showings.”
Upon entering the showroom, to the right we see Chris Valle’s “packaged” series. At first glance, you’d think they were photographs, but they’re actually paintings that emphasize how women are portrayed in the media today. The series features women enclosed in plastic bags with a bar code stamped at the top. The females appear to be asphyxiated and each of the four paintings is named after a cut of meat.
“All of my work is made in series, but they all vary, as far as the outcome of them, but they’re all rooted in the same concept that society constructs reality for the masses,” said Chris Valle, associate art professor. “We over consume and over-package everything and that’s what I wanted to portray in these paintings. In fact, the barcode in the plastic is what you’ll actually find in supermarket meat.”
To the left of the “packaged women” are two more paintings also done by Valle that feature Calvin Klein advertisements and expose how society views branding and sexuality on media. Between Love and Madness lies Obsession and Get some CK Jeans feature fragmentation and layering techniques.
According to Valle, the main idea with these pieces revolves around the fact that we are constantly bombarded with images but we really don’t understand what they are nor what they mean.
“That’s why they are in fragments. Each layer is a painting in itself but it’s not whole,” Valle said. “I wanted to push that further and add graffiti and abstract paintings into one, combining elements that wouldn’t be paired together in order to give that sense of disorganization… how we usually view images on a daily basis.”
Then there is Ina Kaur’s piece, Transformation. Featuring nature and technology morphed into one, we see a tree branch hanging upside down, dangling in front of a digital projector. It’s full effect is complete as it casts a shadow against the image on the wall, enabling the audience to grasp what the piece is about; the fact that people have the ability to morph nature into whatever they want.
Right next to this piece, we have Santiago Echeverry’s La Vie en Rose. This short experimental movie started off as ominous, yet it turned into a hypnotizing piece that plays with the idea of sexuality, specifically with same sex relationships. Created as a frame by frame animation using individual images from Processing 2.0 and the Xbox Kinect sensor, the film focuses on “the way the LGBTI intimacy is interpreted by scared outsider,” according to Echeverry’s website.
Following Santiago, we have Jack King’s pieces. He has different works throughout the showroom, and each has a unique vibe to them, not to mention different meanings and interpretations. For instance, the series called Birmingham Portal, Working in Opposition and Concordance (#12, #13 and #14) , featured three cast iron pieces. Even though iron is a very peculiar material to mold, these featured different shapes and designs, which made them visually appealing and striking. However, another one of his pieces, Never the Teacher’s Pet, Chasing False Dreams of Reason, features a dunce cap stabbed with multiple knives, which makes me believe the message lies between the meaning of intelligence and the destruction of the false idea of stupidity and education.
Across the gallery, we have Kendra Frorup’s works. They are colorful and incorporate different mediums, including patterned beading. In fact, the piece McAllen comes out of the case it is placed in. However, it is cleverly located and can be deceiving for first time gallery visitors. In fact, most of her pieces incorporate some sort of 3D component, making them original and distinctive.
These are just a few of the many interesting pieces the gallery is displaying this year. Whether you are an art aficionado or artistically challenged, these pieces reflect the passion and dedication of the art professors at UT.
Xelmarie Medina can be reached at xelmarie.medina@spartans.ut.edu