Foster Gallery home to annual art show
DJ Slater
Issue date: 9/25/03 Section: Showcase
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They had a good reason to, because they would be the featured artists in the Art Faculty Show, which opened Sept. 11 in the Foster Gallery of Haas Fine Arts.
Within the walls of the Haas Fine Arts Center, students can view a variety of different art from various artists inside and outside the Eau Claire area during the academic school year.
Gallery director Tom Wagener said the featured artists are selected on a rotating schedule, which allows every professor to get a chance to display his or her art.
"The Art Faculty Show is usually the first show of the year," he said. "It shows students what their professors have been working on."
The show has been around since 1970, the year the Foster Gallery was built.
Wagener said the gallery usually has eight shows a year, but this year it has seven. The shows run from the beginning of September to the middle of May.
Horan's work consists of photographs of barns throughout Wisconsin. It is displayed along the Foster Gallery's main wall. She said she found her love for Wisconsin architecture growing up in the small farming community of Owen.
| Art Faculty Show Time: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, and 1 to 4:30 p.m. weekends Date: Runs through Oct. 2 Place: Foster Gallery, Haas Fine Arts Cost: Free |
The barn photos, however, are more than just pictures, Horan said.
The photos are first shot at the barn location. Then they are printed, but not much of the color from the photo remains after this process. The photo is then colored in, using colored pieces, Horan said.
"I'm really excited about this body of work," she said. "The barn has really been important to me for many years."
The images display the barns in their states of deterioration, but Horan said that is her style of art.
"The family history and farming history is being lost by the deterioration of the barn," Horan said. "In its decay, I also see the beauty. These photos captured the essence of the barn."
Sophomore Jen Martin said she is really interested in photography and she found Horan's exhibit fascinating.
"(Art) is so unique to each individual artist," said Martin, a music theory major. "You make your own interpretations out of each piece, which makes it more personal."
Theo, the other featured artist, takes a different approach to his work. His trade comes from graphic design, which is the style he used when creating his work, he said.
"In the gallery, I wanted to get away from (making logos and designs for a larger audience)," Theo said. "I wanted to show more personal work. I wanted to explore things."
Theo said he started out in college as a pre-medical student who was always interested in design. After creating some opening animations and music for different programs that were received nationally, he said he developed a love for it.
On display are four pictures that Theo worked on for the gallery. The main theme behind all of them, he said, is "things aren't always what they seem to be."
He explained this in his piece titled "Philip and Sofia." The piece contained two black-and-white pictures of two individuals who had unfriendly looks on their faces. Next to these two photos were the negative contrasts, identical to those found in negatives used for photographs.
Theo said the main impression a person gets with the piece is that these people are cruel, and added that the negative contrast further emphasizes that these two figures are unfriendly.
The trick, however, is that the subjects are the sweetest people and the negatives are designed to make you think the opposite, he said.
"There is a story behind every picture," Theo said. "Assumptions will be made. When you tell them what it is, they will never look at it the same again."
He further clarified his point by moving onto the piece titled, "You Do The (After) Math." The piece displays an image of a girl from the 1970s, during the time of the Turkish invasion on Cyprus. She is holding a photo of her father who was killed during this time, Theo said.
Underneath her are phrases about war that are "at war" with each other, he explained. The impression people get is that this girl is from Iraq, but in reality, she is not.
The caption on the lower right corner displays the words "Wake Up." Theo said this was meant for people to look closer into the piece and realize the true horror of war.
This was Theo's first time using graphic design to display art. He said he plans to get more intense with his work the next time around.
"This is my medium," Theo said. "The printer, the graphic software - that's my paintbrush."
"It would be a pretty dreary world without art," Wagener said. "Art is not just meant to beautify. It's meant to stimulate, visually and mentally."
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