Seeing 8:
SOU Art Faculty Exhibit

Exhibition Statement

In the twenty-six years since the Schneider Museum of Art opened its doors there have been fifteen Faculty Exhibitions. Each of these group exhibitions has provided an opportunity for the public to view new, original, and innovative works from the renowned Department of Art Faculty at SOU.

One usually expects a group exhibition to be organized thematically around a curator’s current interests or recent trends in the art world. The only unifying aspect of a faculty exhibition was the fact the artists teach in proximity to one another. And yet, as one moved through the Schneider Museum of Art commonalities were discovered.

Much of the work in this exhibition concerned itself with the very definition, material and practice of its own medium. An interest in repetition and the multiple is evident as is a concern with time, personal and public history, and narrative. Perhaps teaching in proximity to one another engenders deeper connections than are at first apparent.

And of course, it’s more than proximity. It’s conversation, sometime constant, and it may be studio visits, collaboration and a thousand more subtle ways in which ideas migrate, root and grow. It’s also teaching. Students carry ideas from one studio to another where they may root, grow, and mutate.

Balancing artistic production/ engagement and teaching is a never-ending tightrope walk practiced by all who engage in both. It was evident moving through the exhibition that we were viewing work by artists who learned how to keep their balance.

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