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Brenda LaBier's "Nest" is among the works on display at the Alumni Art Show 2014 at the University Art Museum.
Alumni Art Show 2014 reflects diverse creative styles
September 18, 2014
Kathryn M. Niles 鈥93 used compressed charcoal and charcoal powder on paper to make Strata VII. Matthew Zupnick 鈥83 constructed Cup and Ball out of bronze and steel. And Karen Kaapcke 鈥86 created Destiny using oil on linen. All three artists have unique styles and work with vastly different media, but they have one big thing in common: they鈥檙e all graduates of 黑料视频.
Niles, Zupnick, Kaapcke and 21 other alumni will have their work featured in the University Art Museum鈥檚 fall exhibit, 鈥淎lumni Art Show 2014,鈥 which kicks off with an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in room 213 of the Fine Arts Building. The exhibition features artists from five decades working in a variety of media: drawing, painting, sculpture, digital prints and installation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to be able to show students, and people in the University and larger community, that Binghamton has produced some really impressive graduates,鈥 said Art Museum Director Diane Butler. 鈥淲e鈥檙e happy to show their work.鈥
The museum hosts an alumni exhibition about every five years, but this year marks the first time that the fall exhibition was juried. The museum received more than 50 submissions from alumni, but Butler, an expert in Renaissance and Baroque art, didn鈥檛 want to make the decision alone. She reached out to contemporary art experts Natalia Mijatovic, chair and associate professor of the Art Department, and Kevin Hatch, assistant professor of art history, to join the jury.
鈥淢y expertise is really with Renaissance and Baroque artists, so to have people who are more aware of where the art world has been going for the last 10 or 20 years is really helpful to me,鈥 Butler said.
Two very alive artists, Anthony Brunelli 鈥92 and John Brunelli 鈥97, will give a gallery talk at 5 p.m. when they will discuss how their path from graduation to running a successful art gallery in downtown Binghamton.
鈥淲hile the Binghamton audience has become exposed to contemporary art downtown for First Friday, we鈥檙e really proud to show our fine arts graduates who are making a living doing their work and really producing interesting pieces,鈥 Butler said.
Interesting art can pose a special challenge for Butler. Take, for instance, Seeds by Kevin Knigge Dartt 鈥11, a piece consisting of nine modular balls made out of diamond-shaped pieces of untreated plywood, held together with a webbing of bungee cords.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always easiest to show work in your own museum that鈥檚 already been matted and framed,鈥 Butler said. 鈥淲hen you have a range of objects like this that vary so much in style and approach, it means that it鈥檚 a challenge for the curator to install the artwork in a way that allows each piece to have its own space and not conflict with pieces beside it 鈥 and that can be a challenge.鈥
In addition to the main exhibition, two small exhibitions curated by 黑料视频 students will open downstairs in the Nancy J. Powell Gallery on Oct. 16. “‘Some of These People’: Marking the Other in Soviet Russia” features Soviet posters on loan from the 黑料视频 Libraries Special Collections and is curated by Michael Kosowski, who majors in art history and Russian. “Yarikata: Making Japanese Prints” focuses on the art of Japanese printmaking and is curated by Christopher Lane, a fine arts major.
Another small exhibition, “The Spanish Forger: ‘Medieval’ Paintings from the Collection of William Voelkle” will also open on Thursday, Oct. 16. This exhibition of known fakes is mounted in conjunction with a symposium, “Hidden Clues: Detecting Fakes and Forgeries in Art,” which will be held from 2-5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, in FA-258, with a reception to follow. The free symposium is sponsored by the Kenneth C. Lindsay Study Room Fund.
Butler hopes that the fall exhibition will serve as an inspiration to Binghamton students that a career in art isn鈥檛 some pie-in-the-sky notion.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always nice for students enrolled in classes now to know that this path has been trod before and that it鈥檚 possible to make a career of making art or showing art,鈥 Butler said. 鈥淭here are people who have been successful.鈥