#start gallery

2017 Student Art Exhibition Opening Reception: Thursday, April 20, 5-7pm Hanes Gallery

Each Spring, Wake Forest University presents an end-of-year show in Hanes Gallery celebrating the achievements of undergraduate-level artists on campus.  The exhibition is submission-based and juried by the studio art faculty, and this spring, features nearly eighty works from more than fifty different student artists in a wide variety of media.

The show is a great way to see the creativity of Wake Forest students on display and to get a taste for the caliber of work being produced in Scales over the course of the past year--and what better time to do so than at the opening reception this Thursday.  If you have work in the show, you should be doubly sure to come by since six students will be awarded $100 Hanes Gallery Awards for their work during the reception.  And even if not, you can still get a sneak preview of works that might someday hang in the likes of Reynolda Hall, since the University purchases a handful of works from each show.

Don’t forget to come out this Friday to support your artist friends with works in the show, or take this opportunity to meet new ones.  

Ann Nguyen: exposing printing processing Opening Reception: Thursday, April 20, 5-7pm Hanes Gallery

Accompanying the 2017 Student Art Exhibition, senior studio art and sociology major Ann Nguyen is pleased to present her honors project, exposing printing processing, this month at Hanes Gallery.  Running from April 20 through May 15, the show is a personal exploration of photography and its limitations that borrows the impersonal visual language of the “Shirley Card,” a type of color reference card used behind-the-scenes in commercial printing practices to perform skin-color balance for decades.

Because the model used for reference was almost exclusively white, the resulting calibrations implicitly biased white skin tones, despite purporting to be an objective standard.  Through her creation of large-format prints of Shirley Cards that feature non-white individuals, Ann Nguyen seeks to challenge the assumption of photography’s objectivity and to stand defiantly against the conflation whiteness and normalcy.

Come witness the artist’s powerful portraits starting this Friday at Hanes Gallery.

The Nature Of: Advanced Painting Senior Exhibition Opening Reception: Monday, April 24th 5-7pm START Gallery

For our last exhibition of the semester, START Gallery is thrilled to present The Nature Of, an exhibition co-curated with Page Laughlin's Advanced Painting Seminar.  Featuring the work of 9 senior artists, The Nature Of explores themes particular both to the artists as individuals and to the class as a whole.  The visual connections between these paintings speak to the many close-knit years these women have painted together in the studio, drawing inspiration from one another as they go.  

We hope you will join us in celebrating the culminating achievements of these 9 seniors' time at Wake at our opening reception next Monday evening.

Art Installations Opening Reception: Tuesday, April 25 from 7-9pm 505 Baity Street (behind Last Resort)

At its core, installation art is about transforming space, but it is also about transforming the way in which we interact with art.  Through the creation of large-scale, three-dimensional works, installation artists seek not to create an object so much as an experience.  The viewer enters these immersive spaces at the crossroads of participant and a spectator, their senses engaged.

Art Installations represents a collaboration between students from Prof. David Finn’s Installation Art course and Prof. Joel Tauber’s Video Art: Site Specific class.  In inter-class pairs, they have been tasked with creating installations that incorporate both video and sculptural elements, transforming unused commercial spaces into works of art to be moved through and experienced directly.  

It’s easy for us to allow the paintings and photographs that hang on the walls there to fade into the background—to become a part of the scenery that we never give a second glance.  We scurry past them on our way to meetings or plop our backpacks down on a couch on the third floor and turn our backs to them as we type away at a paper.  

But I think that we miss out on a vital opportunity afforded to us when we fail to engage with these pieces.  The art on the walls of Benson—together with a portion of those homed in the likes of Reynolda Hall, Wake Downtown, and the Byrum Welcome Center—forms part of the University’s Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art.  There are some recognizable names, even to people who’ve never cracked the cover of an art history book, and some interesting pieces, no matter your familiarity with the art world.

But perhaps the most notable attribute of the collection is that it is entirely student-selected.

Every four years since 1963, a group of students has traveled to New York City to purchase art on behalf of the University.  And this year, six students—myself included—had the honor of joining their ranks.  Over Spring Break, we visited galleries throughout the city with one primary charge:  To return with works of art that represented our moment in history.

Of course, to do that justice, our work had to begin long before the trip itself.  We did our research on the front end, amassing a collection of artists of interest that by late January surpassed the one-hundred-and-fifty mark.  And then we began the daunting process of narrowing down that pool.  A lot of thought went into our “short list,” but in the end, we were still left with enough artists and galleries to easily fill our four short days in the city.

And I can assure you that they were full.

While I can’t say that participating in the trip was a particularly restful experience, it was most definitely worth the long days and the brisk walks through the biting cold of a New York winter.  There are few feelings like walking up to a gallery and being directed to the back room where the pieces you requested—and sometimes a few surprises—are hung for display.  After the back-and-forth of countless phone calls and emails and the task of sifting through price sheets and availability, to finally experience firsthand the artworks that you have spent months looking at on a computer screen is a reward in and of itself.  

Of course, it was almost inevitable that we would find ourselves falling in love with far more art than we could ever afford.  But after much thought and discussion, the six of us were able to land on five pieces that we knew we would be excited to share with the Wake Forest community.  

James Cohan

SAPAR Contemporary

Jack Shainman Gallery

Since not everyone will have the experience of gallery-hopping in the hub of the art world, this collection aims to bring the gallery to you.  And this fall, the newest additions from artists Richard Mosse, Shirin Neshat, Sun Xun, Faig Ahmed, and Mona Hatoum will go on display.  In the meantime, though, I encourage you to revisit some of those framed works you’ve undoubtedly hurried by in the past.  

Maybe you’ll notice something you hadn’t before.

S: In the Art Department I really enjoyed working with Leigh Ann Hallberg. She was one of my favorite professors, very inspiring and very encouraging and I feel like I really learned a lot from her. I really enjoyed her sculpture classes and all the 3D classes I took with her. I also spent a lot of time with Professor Lubin. I took an interdisciplinary seminars from him my second year and then I studied abroad with him in Venice and really enjoyed his film class while I was there. And also Professor Smith, who’s gone, taught the Architectural History classes. I really enjoyed an independent study that I did with her while I was studying abroad. That was really helpful in trying to think about going into architecture afterwards.

B: So, I know that, Lucy, you did an Honors thesis. How did that help you later on in life? Do you feel like you would recommend it to people?

L: It was such an important thing, because I think typically in a seminar here you usually write a fifteen page paper. At least that’s how it was when I was here. And for this, thinking more in the range of thirty pages - it doesn’t seem that much different, but it really is. It’s an awesome opportunity to really sink your teeth into something and become kind of an expert on it and work really closely with a professor - we’re so lucky to have a small department where you have access to your professors and you can get advice. I think it helped for my first internship, which turned into a job at the Cleveland Museum of Art. It helped show that there was a different level of research I was capable of, and writing in a more serious way. I think that helped show that to the curator that I worked with, and he gave me more responsibility because of that. And it was incredibly helpful for grad school, to have basically a writing sample packaged and ready to go, because they usually want something a bit longer.

B: Do you know...can you tell us what your topic was?

L: Haha, yeah. You know, I don’t know, if I read it now what I would think about it. But it was about two artists, who I became familiar with when I studied abroad in Milan my junior year, who were associated with the Arte Povera movement in Italy. So, Mario Merz and Jannis Kounellis, who is actually a Greek artist but he lived in Italy. And it was about the early days in their careers as painters and their transition to sculpture and the way they used light and fire in their sculpture and kind of how that related to ideas of enlightenment and tied into the social and historical context of that period.

B: That’s really cool! And Sarah, so I know you did a lot of extracurricular stuff and we don’t really offer an architecture program here. Can you tell us a little bit about how you manipulated your Wake Forest environment to fit your needs?

S: Yeah. I mean I came from a very nerdy yearbook background in high school, and so I continued that while I was here. I was on staff for four years and I was editor for two and I really enjoyed that because I think a lot of what I learned from doing yearbooks was a lot about storytelling and a lot about layout and composition as a whole and as a way to reinforce a certain narrative. And that really plays into my role within the architecture world because I do a lot more of the marketing, or sort of narrative or storytelling, about the projects rather than design them. So that I think was something that really helped in terms of skill building. But then more specifically I took on an independent study with Professor Smith when I was studying abroad about contemporary museum architecture, which was a really good excuse to travel to a bunch of great museums. And I think that was really good in terms of giving myself some time to really focus and study a specific type of architecture. So that was one of the things that sealed the deal in terms of wanting to go into architecture. I also did a work-study internship with a firm that was in downtown Winston, which gave me the experience of being inside an architecture firm and seeing what that looks like and getting a sort of different sense of the profession. So that was one thing that was really great was that a lot of the teachers in our department were really supportive and really trying to help me find ways to start to get a better sense of if that’s what I wanted to pursue and what that could look like from a bunch of different angles.

B: Do you have any recommendations or advice for students about how to make the most of our department or any things you wish you had done?

L: Yeah I think that like I said before we’re really fortunate to have a small department and professors that really care a lot and are really intelligent and bright and making interesting and intelligent work. You should use them as a resource as much as you can. Like by going in to talk about an article you read and you didn’t understand. Also, I went on the Art Buying Trip my senior year. And just thinking now there’s so many opportunities, I feel, to get involved with that. There’s some amazing objects within the Student Union Collection and I think that there’s a lot of opportunities for engagement with those and their interpretation.

S: I was always really jealous of the Art Buying Trip. I don’t think I ended up applying because I think that happened when I was studying abroad. But, it’s also a little bit about working with some of the teachers to try to figure out how you can start to kind of craft things outside of the regular curriculum to help you figure out what you like about what you’re doing. Even if you don’t have the best idea. I was fortunate enough to sort of have a general area of things I was interested in and I think it was helpful to be able to talk to Leigh Ann and talk to Peggy and say “I’m not really sure how I would go about studying this or what that would look like” and having them help you figure out what that form could take. Could it be an independent study or should it be a work-study or should it just be a type of work you’re doing within their curriculum? I think it’s also a little bit about looking for things that might live outside of the art world or the art program that the professors could probably connect people to that could sort of help you figure out what you’re interested in.

B: What have been the biggest changes on campus that you’ve seen and found interesting or funny?

S:  When I was here they did not have a Starbucks in the library. [laughing from both] We just visited it! The 24 hour room started in the middle of my time here.

B: Did you see the ZieSta Room?

S: ZieSta Room? A nap room? [gasps]

B: It’s upstairs, it’s a nap room with lockers and big puffy armchairs.

S: No, I didn’t, but I’m gonna go see it tomorrow. Because that sounds amazing. One of my strongest memories is trying to study around campus and falling asleep on the couches. But yeah that was kind of a game changer it seems like. Because the 24 hour room was new during my time here already and that was already exciting but having it be a coffee shop seems exciting.

L: Yeah I think the dorms...those dorms by the parking lot and the new Business school building. That’s all kind of surprising.

B: Did you get to go in?

L: No.

B: They’re crazy.

L: Yeah, I’ve heard. And just seeing, as I was saying before, all the new people in the department here and the people who have left. It’s like life goes on once you leave. [laughs] Time doesn’t stop for you, sadly.

B: Do you have any advice for outgoing seniors about things they should hold dear in their hearts about our department?

S: I feel like there’s a certain kind of freedom and certain ability to explore and satisfy some level of curiosity that you have that’s much stronger when you’re in this part of your life. I think being able to use that and really enjoy that and not allow yourself to put all of the stress that will inevitably come in at different times, into what you’re doing and just get the most enjoyment and satisfaction out of it that you can.