Past Exhibitions: Spring 2007

Kelly Ulcak, Ram Pressure
Mixed media on paper
Courtesy the artist

AU Art Department:
Student Exhibitions

Undergraduate Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Design Presenting work by undergraduate students in the Department of Art.

First-Year MFA Candidates Featuring painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation by MFA candidates who have just completed their first year of their two-year MFA program at AU.

MFA Thesis Exhibition This culminating exhibition of AU’s two-year Master of Fine Arts degree features abstract and representational painting and sculpture, as well as installation art (some directly on gallery walls) by Graham Childs, Tom Debari, Ellen Ann Gallup, Rebecca Johnson, Max Kuller, Kelly Ulcak, David Waddell, Jenny Walton and Marty Weishaar.

Romare Bearden, The Grey Cat, 1979
Collage on board
Courtesy Essie Green Galleries

Black Masters

In 1876 an Edward Bannister landscape won the 1876 Centennial Exposition award for oil painting. Yet not a word appears in most American art histories. In 2003 the National Gallery’s retrospective of the art of Romare Bearden became a turning point in the recognition of black artists. This brief survey exhibition is a sketch of the journey of African-Americans and their participation in American art. Charles Alston, Edward M. Bannister, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Sam Gilliam, John W. Hardrick, Lois Mailou Jones, Edward M. Porter, William E. Scott, Charles Sebree, Allen Stringfellow, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Thomas, Mose Tolliver. Sponsored by Hennessy Corportation.

Temaikèn Zoo Wayfinding System, 2001
Design: Lorenzo Shakespear & Juan Shakespear

Diseño Shakespear

A family-owned design consultancy founded in Argentina by Ronald Shakespear nearly 50 years ago, Diseño Shakespear is constantly transforming and evolving. Today, the multidisciplinary design company is run by Ronald, his daughter Barbara, and his sons Lorenzo and Juan. The firm specializes in corporate identity programs, corporate architecture, wayfinding systems, urban furniture design, web and literature design, and communications strategy. This exhibition groups decades of extraordinary production like the wayfinding systems for the Buenos Aires Underground, Temaikèn Zoo, Tren de la Costa, the Buenos Aires City Visual Plan, Public Hospitals, and more.

Hung Liu, Profile II, 2005
Jacquard tapestry
Courtesy of Magnolia Editions

High Fiber

The history of tapestry encompasses pre-Columbian Inca tunics, Egyptian Coptic medallions, Chinese kesi of woven silk, Navajo blankets, and Middle Eastern kilim carpets. Between the third and seventh centuries, tapestry weaving was introduced by Muslim and Byzantine influences to Western Europe. Subsequent revivals by the Arts and Crafts movement and the Bauhaus brought the medium to a 20th century audience. The Magnolia Tapestry Project brings to the time-honored medium of tapestry a new computerized method that captures minute details of the artist’s design and allows the artist to maintain control over the fi nal work. Artists in the exhibition include Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Chagoya, Chuck Close, Bruce Conner, Rupert Garcia, April Gornik, Hung Liu, Alan Magee, Ed Moses, Deborah Oropallo, and William Wiley.

Jules Olitski, Steropes, steel, 2006
Collection of Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen

Jules Olitski:
Late Sculpture

In collaboration with Colorfield Remix, the largest celebration of painting ever held in the Washington area, American University Museum is presenting Jules Olitski’s last major works. His large scale sculptures from the Cyclops series, 2006, is on loan from the collection of Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen.

Laura Amussen
The Petersons, the Entwistles, and the Winklers (Plastic House)
Mixed media, 2006

Laura Amussen:
The Facade

Baltimore artist Laura Amussen blurs the boundaries between landscape and architecture, scrambling the distinctions between organic and synthetic to explore the experience of place: experiences that are steeped in history, nomadism, nostalgia, alienation, and fantasy.

Martin Lewis, Night in New York, 1932, etching

Made in America:
The Washington Print Club 19th Biennial

Made in America, the 19th Washington Print Club Biennial, features over 100 prints made within the borders of the United States by American artists or artists working in America. The show is drawn from the collections of the club’s members. Curated by Baltimore Museum of Art Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, Jay Fisher, the exhibition reflects the range and diversity of the club’s membership and offers a fascinating look at printmaking in America.

Willie Doherty, Extracts from a File, 2000
Photographs mounted on aluminium
Courtesy of the artist & the Kerlin Gallery

Resolutions: New Art from Northern Ireland

Contemporary art in Northern Ireland is hot! “The Troubles” that raged for twenty-five years are over, and artists are helping to build a newer world of tolerance, innovation, and intellectual and aesthetic pleasures. Organized by the Golden Thread Gallery in collaboration with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and curated by Jack Rasmussen, the Resolutions exhibition includes work by Ian Charlesworth, Willie Doherty, Cian Donnelly, Sara Greavu, Carbon Design, Mike Hogg & Philip Napier, Brendan Jamison, Sharon Kelly, Susan MacWilliam, Paddy McCann, Mark McGreevy, Mary McIntyre, Maria McKinney, Simon McWilliams, Darren Murray, Aisling O’Beirn, Gail Ritchie, Paul Seawright, Gary Shaw, Dan Shipsides, and Jennifer Trouton.