As the ongoing pandemic period is still upon us, our visual artists at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design remain nimble and focused with their creative output. Here are several current solo exhibitions on view both in Atlanta and abroad.
Melissa Huang (M.F.A. Candidate ’21) “Another Day Another Girl” at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA
This is Melissa Huang’s first solo institutional exhibition in Atlanta. Her dreamlike oil paintings, prints, sculptures and video art explore digitally constructed bodies and identities. In her often self-referential artwork, Huang delves into the multiplicity of identity and themes like personalities versus personas and technology and social media’s effects (both positive and negative) on the search for and establishment of identity. The exhibition is through March 21.
Wesley Harvey, Lecturer and Graduate Coordinator, “Stupid Love” opens on Feb. 18, at The Roy C. Moore Art Gallery, University of North Georgia, Gainesville, GA
“Stupid Love” continues Harvey’s exploration into the idea of the perfect relationship and his own constant want and need for the fantasy to come to life. Looking under the umbrella of Queer Theory, he examines the idea of the monogamous relationship in terms of gay male sexuality and whether it can or will exist for him. He focuses not only the normative behavior but also the deviant lifestyle that often gets neglected, chastised and frowned upon. The exhibition is through March 12.
Jeremy Bolen, Assistant Professor at “Slow Pause” at Gallery 406 Arts West, Elon University Center for the Arts, Elon, NC
During this time when all are intimately dealing with a pandemic, issues of what can and can’t be perceived have become paramount. “Slow Pause” incorporates unique, material-based, site-specific recordings to explore modes of understanding the unseen and how our patterns of movement impact the world in which we live. Much of Bolen’s work involves the invisible presence that remains from various scientific experiments and human interactions with the earth’s surface. The exhibition is through Feb. 12.
In Kyoung Chun, Alumna (M.F.A. ’12) “Cloud and Table” at the Blue Heron Indoor Gallery, Atlanta, GA
“[Cloud & Table]: These two words are the keywords that convey Chun’s life during a pandemic period. Table signifies eating, talking and working. One important object in her place/studio has been a table. And the cloud symbolizes outdoor life and living nature. According to the artist, “I have gotten closer to nature over the socially distant moments.”
Tori Tinsley, Alumna (M.F.A. ’15) “Hugs” opens Feb. 12 at Laney Contemporary, Savannah, GA.
Tinsley’s fleshy, emotionally expressive characters, which she refers to as “hugs” are indeterminate enough to inhabit all-loving figures, open for the viewer’s projection and recognition of human interaction. They are simple and gestural, wide-eyed and saddened, playful and worried, interchangeably weary and energetic, and yet encouraging. The full spectrum of human emotion is on display. The exhibition is part of a two-person show through April 10.