Edges and Angles, Contours and Reductions/Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns

“What Becomes a Legend Most?” collage by Lisa Garrett

A mixed media piece by Katie Thompson

Combining students from advanced drawing, ceramics, and art history classes, the MTSU Department of Art’s Student Gallery Committee announces a two-exhibit extravaganza to say goodbye to the semester of Spring 2013. Scheduled May 6 – 24, the exhibits will open with a reception Monday, May 6, at 6 p.m.

Entitled Edges and Angles, Contours and Reductions, the collective work of advanced drawing and ceramic students will be on display in the Todd Art Gallery. According to Ashley Cook, a Drawing III student in Meghan O’Connor’s class, “Each student has approached the theme [of the exhibit] with different media, subject matter, and dimensions to create work that truly pushes the boundaries of the theme . . . works with literal edges . . . boundaries of light and dark, and also societal edges, including what we construe as normal and natural.”

Collaboration will also be a theme as the advanced ceramics students of Professor Marisa Recchia work in conjunction with the drawing students to incorporate work produced from the recently completed wood-fired kiln. According to Laura Brake, a ceramics student and advocate, “Each [student] will individually present themes based on their submitted body of work.”

Concurrently, Todd Art Gallery 210 will display the work of students in Dr. Laura Cochrane’s Italian Renaissance Art History class. Explaining the exhibit, Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns, student Victoria Belser states, “We shall each produce an artwork that employs either a Renaissance art technique and deals with a modern theme or an artwork in modern style and technique that deals with a Renaissance theme.”

The exhibit is based on a recurring debate that seeks to determine the greater of two art history components: the authority of ancient artists or the innovation of modern artists. The work will reflect efforts to investigate the interplay of Renaissance tradition and contemporary invention hoping to illuminate the ideas and concerns of each period.

Displayed work will represent fresco painting, panel painting, book arts, mosaic and oil painting and are expected to address such issues as gender, artistic identity, religion and politics.

All exhibits and receptions in the Todd Art Gallery are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit mtsu.edu/art or call (615) 898-5653.