Behind the scenes of "Meraki"

Throughout April, the University of Redlands Art Gallery is hosting “Meraki,” an exhibition featuring the work of twenty-five graduating student artists. The exhibition was planned by students enrolled in the Studio Art capstone seminar. Earlier this month, I spoke with two of the students, Alicia Lopez and Calvin Originales, to learn more about what went into staging this exhibition.

Where are you from and what have you studied at University of Redlands? How would you describe your art?

Alicia Lopez: My name is Alicia Lopez, born Alicia Ortiz in Southern California. I raised a family before becoming a returning student. I started at Crafton Hills College, then transferred to Redlands, double majoring in Liberal Studies and Studio Art. My goal is to become an elementary school teacher who integrates Art with all other subjects, bringing it back to the elementary school classroom.

Calvin Originales: My name is Calvin Originales, and I have been living in Redlands for most of my life. I studied at Crafton Hills College for two years before transferring here to University of Redlands to study for another three years. My concentration is Graphic Design, but I have been working in many different mediums of art.

Alicia Lopez: My art is abstract, based off emotions I am feeling or struggling with. I work mainly with acrylic paints on canvas, and tend to use my fingers, hands, and arms to apply the paint at times. I am a very tactile person and like to bring texture to my pieces.

Calvin Originales: I believe that the work I create follows a very different idea than a lot of my classmates. As someone who was born with a hearing disability, I always focused on the visual aspects of everyday objects to live a comfortable life. Because of this, I enjoy seeing things that are easy to understand and translate.

Alicia Lopez: For the show, I created four body imprints (two are displayed) where I covered most of my body in paint (still trying to get it all out of my hair!) and lay in different positions on panels of cloth. Faceless Beauty is an acrylic painting displayed where I layered paint on top of paint to bring texture to the piece, using palette knives along with brushes to apply the paint. Torn Serenity, not in the show, is a piece where I took paper clay to create fingers, which I poked through the canvas to create a 3D piece. For myself, many times it is the process of creating, and not necessarily the outcome, that I am looking for.

Calvin Originales: My recent projects have consisted of visual graphics, architecture, landscaping, and sculpture to design an environment that is not only visually appealing, but also easy to navigate and understand. These environments I have been designing include parks, a beach, and even a section of a college campus.

What was involved in setting up the senior art show? 

Calvin Originales: Our 2022 Senior art show has been a class effort when it comes to putting it together. Professor Penny divided our class of 25 students into 4 different committees. We are on the exhibition committee and we have quite a few tasks. We led the discussion in coming up with a title that would represent our work and ourselves as artists. We also communicated with other classmates about the work they wish to present in the show and the space they need to effectively display their work. After we were able to get a better idea of what was being put in the show, a few of us on the committee brainstormed ideas on where we would want to place our classmates’ work, and others took charge in getting artwork labels and artist statements from our class.

Alicia Lopez: There are other committees involved who created a catalog and an online exhibit of the artists and their work, along with fliers, banners, and postcard invitations each of us involved could send out to loved ones. It was a huge group effort, and with everyone so willing to support each other in what they were trying to accomplish, I believe it to be a wonderful success for us all.

Calvin Originales: All this week, our class has been installing their work in the gallery. It was our committee’s job to make sure everything would run smoothly, but it took effort from our whole class to prepare it into how it is now. We all helped each other hang our artworks, adjust lighting, figure out placements of pedestals, and overall, design a space that would allow all our artworks to intrigue people the moment they take a step in the gallery.

What was something you learned about yourself, or other graduating artists, during the process of getting ready for this show?

Alicia Lopez: There is much collaboration and compromise involved with creating a successful group show. Last semester, we did set up an art show at a local pizza place, which gave us a little insight on what to expect for the show for this semester.

Calvin Originales: It is exciting to me to finally be able to see everyone’s work. Because our class has a variety of concentrations, a lot of us have never really shared a class with each other. I have taken intro classes with some but never shared another class with them until now, and it is interesting to see the work that they specialize in.

Alicia Lopez: I learned to become more forgiving with myself and more confident in the work that I create. Planning a show like this, you learn things about each other that you might not have otherwise. This great group of artists can be very intimidating at first when one sees how talented they all are. I was very intimidated and thought my work wasn’t “up to par” per se. Realizing that we all face the same fears/struggles in life, that we are all human and all could use a little help/support, reminded me to be proud of my own accomplishments and confident enough to attempt things I may have never considered otherwise. Being able to bounce ideas off of each other, especially those from other concentrations, helped in being able to see things from different perspectives and in solving issues where I was able to talk out where/why I was stuck.

The closing reception for “Meraki” is Thursday, April 21, 2022 from 4:30-6:30 pm at the University of Redlands Art Gallery. Selected works are available on the exhibition website: https://www.redlands.edu/study/schools-and-centers/college-of-arts-and-sciences/undergraduate-studies/art/gallery/2021-2022/senior-art-show-2022-meraki2/  

Journeying to "Dreamland"

 

This month, the University of Redlands department of Studio Art presents Dreamland, an exhibition of prints and video works by Penny McElroy.

A mixed media artist, graphic designer and Professor of Studio Art at University of Redlands, McElroy developed the exhibition during her recent sabbatical.

Many of the pieces are machine-produced through risography, a decades-old printing technique enjoying a resurgence among contemporary artists. Popularized by the Japanese company Riso in the 1980s, risographs are known for their vibrant, sustainable inks and economical production value. Many printers, churches and schools came to rely on risography in the era before affordable desktop printing; in the digital era, the method has evolved into "an equally modern and nostalgic experience." [1, 2]

Other pieces involve paintings on translucent rice paper pressed over a video background to produce a composite, continuously shifting image. Like the risographs, these works immerse the viewer in a drama of light and shadows. As bold colors intermingle, McElroy's evocative titles invite viewers to contemplate multiple layers of meaning.  

In her exhibition statement, McElroy relates her use of light and shadow to the many journeys that await her viewers - travel across time and space, or perhaps deep within oneself. "Shadow and light, inextricably linked - each necessary for the other to be. In dreamland, these are not opposite concepts, but rather more like the front and back covers of that favorite novel. When we enter it, we are immediately elsewhere..." [3]

Dreamland runs January 18 to February 6, 2022 at the University Art Gallery. The opening reception will be held Wednesday, January 26 from 4:30-6:30 pm. Face coverings and proof of vaccination are required in keeping with University of Redlands health and safety protocols. 

Sources

[1] Brown, Evan Nicole. "The Vintage Japanese Copy Machine Enjoying an Artistic Renaissance." Atlas Obscura, August 21, 2018, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/risograph-machines

[2] "Hi, My Name's Riso, I'm Here to Help You!" Creative Review 32, no. 10, October 2012, 38-48. Art Full Text. 

[3] McElroy, Penny. Personal correspondence, January 17, 2022.

Raúl Acero's "Colecciones": Gathering Inspiration, Once Again

 

 

This week "Colecciones" by Studio Art Professor Emeritus Raúl Acero opens at the University of Redlands Art Gallery. Acero is a mixed-media artist who explores themes of time, identity and culture through simple techniques that embody centuries of tradition and innovation.

"Colecciones" draws together work from across Acero's career, including a series of sculpted clay heads, paintings evoking the history of indigenous people and works inspired by his own family. The concept for the show developed out of Acero's response to the pandemic, which struck while he was on sabbatical and has persisted beyond his retirement. Unable to access supplies and equipment needed to work in three-dimensional sculpture, he turned to drawing and painting and held his most recent exhibition, "A Maker's Life," as an online retrospective.

With the campus open again, "Colecciones" fully exploits Acero's ability to physically juxtapose his work in a gallery. Grouping his work into categories helped Acero articulate the coherence of his art and its relationship to current issues, such as the movements for social justice that gained momentum during the pandemic summer. In choosing to work with (relatively) inexpensive materials, to create practical objects, and to execute his concepts himself, Acero stands against dominant value systems of Western art, aligning himself instead with traditions of craft and figurative sculpture found around the world.

"Colecciones" runs November 16-December 12 at the University Art Gallery. The opening reception is Wednesday, November 17 from 4:30-6:30 pm. You can also view "Colecciones" online at https://www.redlands.edu/colecciones.

Southland Ensemble to visit University of Redlands May 17

University of Redlands students and the renowned experimental music group Southland Ensemble will join forces on Friday, May 17 at 3 pm in Old Peppers Gallery to perform poetry by Jackson Mac Low and music by Barney Childs. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The workshop, affiliated with Professor Alisa Slaughter's May Term class "Arts and Inquiry," will feature discussion and performances by Mac Low, a renowned author and artist in spoken, visual and musical performance genres, and Childs, a composer known for exploring indeterminacy and extended techniques who taught at Johnston and served as composer-in-residence from 1971 to 1996.

Armacost Library Special Collections holds the papers and manuscripts of Barney Childs and many representative works by Mac Low can be found in the library collection.

A program for the afternoon workshop includes:

• Mac Low, 5 Young Turtle Asymmetries 
• Mac Low, Is That Wool Hat My Hat?
• Mac Low, Asymmetries (student and Southland Ensemble performance)
• Mac Low, Asymmetries (Southland Ensemble performance)
• Childs, Operation Flabby Sleep
• Childs, The Crab on the Mirror

The score for Childs' Operation Flabby Sleep, written in 1968 and dedicated to Harold Budd, consists of a grid of 27 boxes containing various markings and fragments of musical notation. Performers are instructed to render the empty space in each box as silence, and use the markings to produce sound according to a set of basic principles. A minimum of three performers are needed to realize the score. It is up to the musicians, individually and by collective agreement, to work out the pacing, musical content, and expressive range of the piece.

Childs' Crab on the Mirror for viola and cello is a traditionally notated piece, but it too has a trick up its sleeve. The music takes the form of a "mirror canon" in which the part for one musician is the same as the part for the other musician, only in reverse and melodically inverted. Both musicians can therefore play from the same page of sheet music, but one of them must turn it upside down.  This compositional technique dates from the 16th century, and Childs' playful homage reflects his long-standing interest in Renaissance arts, which motivated him to write his Ph.D dissertation on poetry settings in Elizabethan madrigals.