Varia: BFA Exhibition - Part 1

One of the people in our monotype workshop was a BSU student, Karl LeClair.  He told us he had some of his artwork in the Boise State University's BFA Exhibition entitled Varia.  Mary Donato and I said we would go see it.  The last day of the exhibit was last Thursday and that is when we went.

BSU has several gallery spaces spread around campus.  Varia was in two different areas, the gallery in the Liberal Arts building and in the Hemingway Center.  We started in the Liberal Arts gallery.

Overview of the Liberal Arts building gallery.

Below is Karl's piece.  We recognized it right away because 1) it is facing the entry to the gallery and 2) he used a similar motif for his prints in the workshop.  These are all prints and the plates he used to print them are on the floor.

Here is a close up view of some of the prints which were held together by magnets.

Each artist had a statement about their work which was in a binder by the entrance to the gallery. It was very interesting to read the statements.

For example, this blurry picture is of photographs by Stephanie North, entitle As One.  She is exploring the perception of college athletes.  Each photo has a student athlete dressed in their sport's attire and also a photo of them dressed in their street clothes, illustrating the fact that their sport or people's perception of a student athlete is not the only thing that defines the person.

These next two pieces are by Adam Atkinson.  I was surprised to see work using fabric and stitches although I do believe textile/fabric/fiber art is becoming more widely accepted as a fine art (as opposed to fine craft) in the general art world.

I was particularly interested in these because it was a male artist that created them.  The majority of artists working in textile/fabric/fiber tend to be female.  And Atkinson talks about the tradition of hand crafts done by women in his statement and is exploring gender roles in these pieces.

This first piece, Alternate Identity, is reminiscent of Nick Cave's full sized bears covered with found sweaters in the Boise Art Museum's recent exhibition, Meet Me at the Center of the Earth. Perhaps Atkinson was influenced by that.

In this artwork, Looking, Atkinson created lines using hand stitches on canvas.

Toward the middle of the gallery, there was some smaller sculptural work by Everett Hoffman. This one is entitled Our Love of Spoons.  These are very well done with the carving and execution.  Hoffman has taken an everyday object we can all relate to and has put it on a pedestal, literally.

Most of the artwork in this gallery seems to explore perceptions of identity, our roles in society and relationships, all natural subjects for young adults.

In the next post, part 2 of Varia.