December 18, 2024

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

UMW Galleries Highlight Alumni and Faculty Artists Past and Present

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Origins

A retrospective of artwork from Mary Washington alumni and faculty past and present will be featured in one of two exhibitions hosted by the UMW Galleries, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 6. The other will honor the legacy of a former professor who was instrumental in cultivating the University’s art collection.

The exhibits, Origins: UMW Ceramics Faculty and Alumni in the duPont Gallery, and Julien Binford: A Legacy of Inspiration & Enterprise in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery, will open with receptions from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Origins, which will be on display through March 29, showcases the diverse artwork of faculty and alumni from the University of Mary Washington’s ceramics program over the past 50 years. It is also a concurrent exhibition for this year’s National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), to be held in Richmond Virginia in late March.

Julien Binford

By bringing together a variety of expressions, techniques and processes, the exhibition highlights the success of our former students and the strength of our department while illustrating the range and depth of contemporary ceramic art.  From sculptural objects and installations to functional pottery, Origins celebrates our community, and reiterates Mary Washington’s identity as an institution grounded in the liberal arts.

Julien Binford, on display through March 15, honors the legacy of former Mary Washington Professor of Art, Julien Binford. The show presents preparatory drawings that Binford created during the 1940s and early 1950s for important commissions he received from LIFE Magazine and The Greenwich Savings Bank. These works were graciously loaned by Maureen Paige (UMW, Class of 1970), a former student of Julien Binford. Also on display are artworks acquired by Binford during his tenure at Mary Washington.

DeLancey Will Present Free Lecture on ‘Florence and the Medici,’ Nov. 8

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Professor of Art History Julia DeLancey

Professor of Art History Julia DeLancey

Julia DeLancey, Professor of Art History, will present a free lecture entitled “Florence and the Medici,” at St. George’s Episcopal Church on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. There will be a brief reception starting at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Fredericksburg-Este Association, the lecture will explore the powerful Medici family and its patronage of the arts and humanism in Renaissance Florence. Read more.

Marginalized Histories of Korean Women Opens in Ridderhof Martin Gallery Oct. 24

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The Department of Art and Art History and UMW Galleries present the opening exhibition of Marginalized Histories of Korean Women Thursday, Oct. 24 from 5-7 p.m. in Ridderhof Martin Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Suzie Kim, Assistant Professor of Art History, and features the work of Youngjoo Cho, Dohee Kim, Sumita Kim, and Wonju Seo. The Marginalized History of Korean Women symposium will be held the following day, Oct. 25. Please see the UMW Marginalized Histories of Korean Women Exhibition and Symposium Flyer for more information.

Entwined within the recent political history of Korea—Japanese colonial period (1910–45), liberation from it, the division of the Korean peninsula into north and south at the end of World War II, the Korean War (1950–53), the New Village Movement by the former president Park Chung Hee in the 1970s, the Gwangju Uprising (1980), and the democratization of the south in the 1980s—are Korean women whose histories have been often ignored or marginalized for contradicting conventional values of marriage and family, and the messages of political regimes. It is possible to expose the silenced histories of women in a society with deep roots in traditional Confucian ethics if we follow Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s vision of decolonizing feminism and acknowledge the complexities that characterize the lives of women in countries other than the West. The focus of the exhibition will be on accounts of Korean women in daily life, in fluid historical conjunctions, and in latent opposition to collectivism.

This exhibition presents four contemporary Korean artists, Youngjoo Cho, Dohee Kim, Sumita Kim, and Wonju Seo. Their art epitomizes the intersection of personal and collective histories of Korean women, and illustrates contemporaneous conversations against militarism, patriarchy, and nationalism.

DeLancey Presents Research on Visual Culture and Visual Impairments in Early Modern Venice

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Professor of Art History Julia DeLancey

Professor of Art History Julia DeLancey

On Saturday, October 19, Julia DeLancey (Professor of Art History) presented a paper entitled “The Visual Culture of the Confraternity of the Blind in Early Modern Venice” at the 50th meeting of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference. The paper, based on new archival research in the Archivio di Stato (state archives) in Venice, explored the activities of a group (confraternity) formed in the fourteenth century so that Venetians with visual impairments could ask for alms in the lagoon city. The paper also relied on key ideas from disability studies theory, in particular the cultural model of disability laid out by Sharon Snyder and David Mitchell (Georgetown University) who spoke on UMW’s campus in the fall of 2018.

Dreiss Presents Paper at Virginia Humanities Conference

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Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss

Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss

Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss presented a paper entitled “The Aesthetics of Flow: Achieving Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Optimal Experience through Contemplative Practice with Visual Art” at the Virginia Humanities Conference at Virginia Wesleyan University on April 12-13, 2019.

 

Dreiss Quoted in Article on Notre Dame Cathedral

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Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss

Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss

Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss was quoted in an article about Notre Dame, after the 850-year-old cathedral was engulfed in a massive fire on April 15 that spared only its main structure and two bell towers. “Viollet-le-Duc was a Gothic revivalist and interestingly, he had an impact on early modern architecture because of the emphasis that he placed on the structural beauty of buildings, which is a really significant aspect of the Gothic style,” Dreiss said. Read more. 

 

 

McMillan Exhibits at Bridgewater, Guest Art Reviewer at JMU

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detail image of the sculpture "Dissipate" by Jon McMillan

Detail image of the sculpture “Dissipate” by Jon McMillan

“Synthesis,” a solo exhibition of ceramic sculpture by Associate Professor Jon McMillan, will be on view at the Cleo Miller Driver Gallery at Bridgewater College from January 8- January 31.  This exhibition features 12 new sculptures by the artist, and will begin with a reception and gallery lecture on Monday January 8 at 5 p.m.

For more info, visit: https://www.bridgewater.edu/events-news/news-releases/2043-fredericksburg-artist-jon-mcmillan-exhibits-work-jan-8-31​.

 A news article about his exhibit also appears in the Augusta Free Press. To view the link,  visit http://augustafreepress.com/fredericksburg-artist-jon-mcmillan-exhibits-work-bridgewater-college.

In addition, McMillan was invited by the art faculty at James Madison University to serve as the outside reviewer and guest critic for the MFA student reviews.  Professor McMillan spent two days in Harrisonburg in December meeting with faculty and students, touring the school’s newly renovated art building, and participating in a day-long critique of the Masters of Fine Arts candidates’ artwork.  McMillan is an alumnus of JMU, having earned his BFA in Studio Art and a minor in Art History there in 1998.

 

June 17 Event to Showcase Joe DiBella’s Students’ Work

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Belle Arte and Juxtaposed Generations: A Pop-Up  Event of Student Work

From Joseph DiBella’s Topics in Painting, Summer 2016

UMW Distinguished Professor of Art Joe DiBella is retiring this year after almost 40 years at the University of Mary Washington. The work featured in this special pop-up is from his last class.

DiBella was the first Director of the University of Mary Washington Galleries (1983-88) and was instrumental in establishing the Ridderhof Martin Gallery. In addition, he was co-director of the University of Mary Washington summer program in Urbino, Italy (1994-2003). A signature member of the National Watercolor Society, he has shown his work in local, regional, national and international exhibitions. DiBella has taught courses in design, drawing, painting, color theory, watercolor and materials and techniques.

The special pop-up show will take place at Art Mart, 1405 Princess Anne Street, in downtown Fredericksburg on Friday, June 17, 2016, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. There will be a spin-off show at Frame Designs Gallery in the near future.

Tilt Susan Five Femmes

“Five Femmes,” by Susan Tilt, 2016. Oil on wood panel, 48″ x 48″.

 

 

A Digital Kind of Paintbrush

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A sprawling American beech tree outside of Woodard Campus Center doubles as an artists’ canvas for art students at the University of Mary Washington. This fall, Assistant Professor Jason Robinson’s eight advanced video technique students created imaginative digital designs through one-minute films projected onto the tree. The technique, called projection-mapping, requires careful consideration of the […]