Thursday evening, August 26. Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Nathaniel Rogers will give a gallery talk at a reception for the
college's annual Faculty Art Exhibition. That exhibition will be in
the Van Every Gallery, and will include works by Rogers, sculptor Cort
Savage, and printmaker Rebekah Tolley. There is no charge to attend
the reception, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Belk Visual Arts Center.
Nathaniel Rogers' talk will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Also on exhibit in the adjoining Smith Gallery will be "Ewan Gibbs:
America." Gibbs will be at Davidson to discuss his work on Tuesday,
Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Semans Lecture Hall in the Belk Visual Arts
Center.
Both exhibits will be on display from August 27 through October 6. The
galleries are open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends from
noon to 4 p.m. There is no charge to view the exhibits. For
information call 704-894-2519.
Professor Cort Savage will debut a major kinetic installation entitled
"CANONS." It consists of three large steel towers, suggestive of
gallows, that fill the main space of the Van Every Gallery. Held by
thick metal cables, each tower suspends from its core a large, black
rubberband ball––a reference to Savage's "Inevitable Form" series and
"Scattered Man" installation.
Buried within the center of each ball is a bronze cast of a human
skull. Clamped within the jaws of each skull is one of three major
religious texts—the Holy Bible, the Tanakh, and the Qu'ran. Faint
white outlines of each skull (and respective canon) appear in backlit
X-rays displayed on adjacent walls.
As each ball is slowly lifted and dropped, a dull rumble (like thunder
or distant cannon fire) permeates the gallery. The foreboding sound
and formidable structures encourage the viewer to contemplate the
inevitability of mortality and the eternal life promised through
adherence to holy doctrines.
Associate Professor Rebekah Tolley specializes in printmaking. Her
installation titled "Carapace" is her first project at Davidson since
her exhibitions in Beijing and in Zibo, Shandong, China earlier this
summer. Tolley's multi-media installations incorporate dual interests
in animation and printmaking. The resulting artworks are as organic
and fluid as the aquatic life forms that inform them.
Visiting Assistant Professor Nathaniel Rogers is a 2002 Davidson
graduate who begins teaching at his alma mater this semester. Rogers'
narrative, small-scale oil paintings, often staged in theatrical
settings, are meticulously rendered and filled with playful detail.
Inspired by Grimm's "Fairy Tales," Rogers seeks to reveal the more
unsavory aspects of human nature.
By masking his characters' sadistic acts within childish role-playing
scenarios, Rogers mitigates the truths that belie their degenerative
behavior.
British artist Ewan Gibbs will present in the Smith Gallery a
collection of drawings that feature iconic skyline views of American
cities. Gibbs deconstructs the "psychology of place" through a series
of self-made, formalist systems that exploit the nature of visual
perception and comprehension. His process underscores the order and
logic of the built environment.
A fully illustrated catalogue of Gibbs exhibition will be available
that includes an introduction by exhibition organizer Brad Thomas and
an essay by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Assistant Curator of
Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The
book will also feature a months-long correspondence between the artist
and noted art historian Richard Shiff, Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair
in Art and director of the Center for the Study of Modernism at the
University of Texas at Austin.
These exhibitions and the publication for Ewan Gibbs: America are
generously sponsored by The Herb Jackson and Laura Grosch Gallery
Endowment and Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman. The public lecture is
supported by a grant from the Public Lectures Committee at Davidson
College. Special thanks to the exhibiting artists and staffs of
Richard Gray Gallery and The Flag Art Foundation.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for
1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C.
Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has
graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of
the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson
Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the
nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages,
giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson
competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding
Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
