Art faculty members showcase a variety of work in biennial exhibition
The “Tenth Biennial Faculty Exhibition,” on display in McDaniel College's Esther Prangley Rice Gallery, highlights a variety of works by current Art faculty members at the college.
Steven Pearson: “Study for Reemergence,” 2021, Charcoal on paper, 34 x 24 inches
The “Tenth Biennial Faculty Exhibition” highlights a variety of works by current Art faculty members at the college.
The exhibition runs Thursday, Oct. 21–Friday, Dec. 10. An opening reception takes place Thursday, Oct. 21, 5-7:30 p.m., with a gallery talk at 6 p.m.
This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see the range and depth of works by select McDaniel faculty members.
A wide range of media, styles, and subject matter are showcased, including paintings by Steven Pearson, the Joan Develin Coley Chair in Creative Expression and the Arts, and intermedia and digital art by assistant professor Chloe Irla '07.
Other works include images and wall sculpture by adjunct lecturer Chinen Aimi Bouilon, photography by senior adjunct lecturer Walter P. Calahan, pottery and ceramics by adjunct lecturer Nicole Diem, and mixed media by adjunct lecturer Rachel Wojnar '18.
The exhibition and reception are both free and open to the public. The Esther Prangley Rice Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Call 410-857-2595 for more information.
About the Artists:
Chinen Aimi Bouilon, adjunct lecturer, is an artist working as an anthropological detective. By investigating semiotic relationships and identifying territories of contradiction, she uncovers hidden histories. This creative research is rooted in Feminist International Relations, which focus on intersections of gender, power, and war. Her approach is rooted in the transformative potential of social sculpture and the power of Ryukyu Sosensuhai (Ancestors Worship), while also acknowledging the realities of globalization. Bouilon notes that she was born to an Indigenous Ryukyu mother and a U.S. Marine father; a by-product of the colonized and the colonizer.
Walter P. Calahan: “Los Angeles, California,” 2012, Digital infrared photography, 2 x 3 feet
Through affective objects that relate and stimulate emotions from the past and present, she aims to share the ritual of spherical thinking – that is, meaning shaped through the historical consideration of time and space – in hopes of stimulating the power of the collective unconscious and possibilities of peace.
Walter P. Calahan, senior adjunct lecturer, states that “Photography was born of science. It is through science that we learn what the human senses cannot know, such as the electromagnetic spectrum that extends beyond the capacity of human sight.”
Calahan, who was first introduced to infrared photography during a magazine assignment on the University of South Carolina’s scientific research of loggerhead sea turtles, displays a small portion of photographs he has taken by a digital camera altered to capture infrared and an infrared “light” source.
Nicole Diem, adjunct lecturer, says, “My passion is to create art and my love of art is to teach.”
A high school art educator for over 20 years, Diem was honored in 2018 as the outstanding arts educator for Carroll County by the Maryland Art Education Association. She has taught at the college level for three years and is also an instructor of ceramics for Common Ground on the Hill at McDaniel.
“Chloe Irla: "Before Times," 2021, Scanned knitting, 18 x 24 inches
Chloe Irla, assistant professor and 2007 McDaniel alumna, shows pieces from her series “Home Work,” a multidisciplinary design project that presents the overwhelming nature of the invisible labor of trying to maintain both professional and personal obligations during a global pandemic.
“Since fall 2020, I've been creating work about my time teaching, working, and parenting from home,” according to Irla. “These projects include data visualizations of my time simultaneously working and parenting, knitted newspaper headlines about how working mothers were affected by the pandemic, and typographic wearables that express new terms that are now part of our daily vernacular, like ‘languishing.’"
Steven Pearson, the Joan Develin Coley Chair in Creative Expression and the Arts, says, “The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted the course of my art making. I began a shift from abstract to representational and figurative work. These are my first investigations on this path as I explore formal and conceptual connections between my past and present.”
He says that while teaching remotely, he created instructional videos for his students demonstrating drawing and painting techniques. This led him to re-connect with the work he did in graduate school and the early part of his art career. His latest work is inspired by objects and people in his immediate surroundings.
Rachel Wojnar, adjunct lecturer and 2018 McDaniel alumna, features multimedia work.
She said, “My work explores the realms of ecological entanglement, symbiosis, and cyclical systems of life and death in an attempt to make sense of living in a dying world... I often use ethically foraged plant and mineral pigments in my drawings, as well as found, recycled, and handmade papers that tie me to my ecosystem in sustainable practice.”
