Holy Cross Cantor Art Gallery to Exhibit Artwork by Visual Arts Faculty

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross will exhibit artwork created by full and part time faculty members of the visual arts department from Aug. 29 – Oct. 12, 2018. An opening reception for "SUMMA: Visual Arts Faculty 2018" will be held Wednesday, Sept. 5 from 5 – 7 p.m.

Artists included in the exhibition are Michael Beatty, associate professor and studio division head; Rachelle Beaudoin, lecturer; John Carney, studio supervisor; Matthew Gamber, assistant professor; Victor Pacheco, lecturer; Cristi Rinklin, professor; Susan Schmidt, professor; and Leslie Schomp, senior lecturer. The visual arts faculty are an accomplished group of professionals who are active practitioners of disciplines ranging from digital media, photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture, to printmaking and artists' books.

"SUMMA is a collection of recent work produced in the last three years and highlights the current artistic explorations of the Visual Arts faculty," explained Roger Hankins, director of the Cantor Art Gallery. "The longstanding tradition of faculty exhibitions at the Cantor Art Gallery is important because it gives students the opportunity to see first-hand what their professors have been up to in their own studios. These exhibitions teach by example the dedication it takes to sustain a professional art practice – it’s a way of mentoring the next generation of young artists."

The range of ideas developed in the work speaks to the varied interests and expertise of the faculty. Michael Beatty, who teaches sculpture and three-dimensional design, and is represented by Barbara Krakow Gallery in Boston, has created a series of small-scale sculptures that combine both traditional building techniques and current-edge 3-D printing technology.

Rachelle Beaudoin's work follows in the tradition of feminist performance art. As a lecturer who teaches digital and new media, she employs performances, videos, and objects to confront stereotypes and tropes of gender representation. John Carney recently assumed the role of studio supervisor, after holding a similar position at the University of Maine in Bangor, and is showing a piece which demonstrates his interest in process-oriented projects.

"Lost Color of God and Man," a revolving slideshow by Matthew Gamber, associate professor of both analog and digital photography, recreates the early color experiments of inventors Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes, whose work in the 1930s, with the help of Kodak's research facilities, was realized as Kodachrome, the first commercially successful color film. Gamber's work presents modern interpretations of early 20th century photographic developments. He is represented by Gallery Kayafas in Boston.

Victor Pacheco, lecturer, is showing sculptural pieces that explore how human beings interact with technology. He says, "My interest in the way we use multiple technology devices as a normal part of life inspired this work. I am looking at our interactions with technology. The pieces are meant to playfully inspire inquiry and reflection around the topic of technology." The sculptures to be exhibited are from a body of work that was shown earlier this year at the Worcester Center for Crafts in the solo exhibition entitled "A Beautiful Connection."

Over the past decade Professor Cristi Rinklin's paintings have used the landscape as a device for her exploration of the tradition of illusionism in painting. Using both analog and digital constructions, her recent work is based on research she conducted of mountain top removal practices used by the mining industry. There is an other-worldly sense of uncertainty and detachment present in these uninhabited works that give, as Rinklin says, "a feeling of 'solastalgia,' a persistent symptom of our contemporary condition of facing an unknown future." Rinklin is represented by Steven Zavitas Gallery in Boston.

Professor Susan Schmidt, who is the longest serving member of the Visual Arts faculty, has taught drawing, printmaking, and artists' books for over twenty-five years at Holy Cross. She will be showing the print "Degree of Impact" which focuses attention on climate change and the denial by the head of the EPA of the science supporting it. A series of monotype portraits of players in the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School football team taking the knee during the National Anthem in October 2017, highlights current social justice concerns. "As Long as I’m Here," another series, examines the interconnections between natural forms and human forms, as well as the forces that place them under stress.

Moving back and forth between the processes of figurative drawing and sculptural forms, Leslie Schomp, senior lecturer, is constantly exploiting form, materiality, surface, and texture with self-portraits and re-imaginings of nature as her subject. Schomp, who shows her work locally as well as nationally, most recently co-curated an exhibition of Robert Beauchamp drawings at the Cantor Art Gallery earlier this year, along with Professor Maurice Géracht and Roger Hankins.

During the course of the semester, each of the artists will give demonstrations of their processes, either at the Cantor Art Gallery or in the Millard Art Center, where studio spaces are located on campus. Check the Cantor Art Gallery’s website for dates and times at www.holycross.edu/cantorartgallery.

EVENTS

Wed., Aug. 29, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. | Exhibition open | Cantor Art Gallery

Wed., Sept. 5, 5 – 7 p.m. | Opening Reception | Cantor Art Gallery

Gallery Information

Founded in 1983 through the generosity of Iris & B. Gerald Cantor, the Cantor Art Gallery serves both as a venue for a changing series of historical and contemporary public exhibitions, as well as a vital resource for Holy Cross faculty and students, linking exhibitions to the broader liberal arts curriculum.

The hours for the Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday, 10: a.m. – 5 p.m. and Saturdays noon – 5 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, Mass., 01610.  Visitors needing assistance with handicap accessibility should contact Public Safety at 508-793-2011. Admission to the gallery is free.

For additional information please call 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery’s website at: holycross.edu/cantorartgallery.