The 2022 Art and Design Faculty Exhibition is underway now at our very own Giertz Gallery. All are welcome and encouraged to visit! This year is the fifty-fourth annual exhibition of staff works, showing the staff’s commitment to enriching students, faculty, and the community with their art. Seeing the pieces on display gives a blinding impression of how hard the art faculty at Parkland work to spread their knowledge. Additionally, it shows the broad range of talent and skill the art faculty have.
Photo by Olaf Schwink
Organized by Lisa Costello, the Gallery Director, this year’s faculty exhibit houses over 40 pieces. These works of twelve Parkland staff members, include a variety of art media. Planning for an exhibit of this size is no small task. Staff submit their work, including a description and price tags, in late July and early August, leaving only a short window for the exhibit to be put together.
Costello keeps a well-maintained gallery. Every exhibit requires different accommodations, and no lack of effort goes into ensuring that every entry is displayed in an interesting and creative fashion. For most exhibits, at least one wall is painted a different color. Paintings and drawings are hung on walls, while sculptural pieces are places on pedestals which change position for each exhibition.
Viewing the art made by our faculty gives a solid impression of the quality and variety of the art program at Parkland. The exhibition is not a juried show, meaning that all art that is submitted for the show is put on display. I got some insight in an interview with Denise Seif, the Program Director of Art and Design at Parkland.
“Our faculty don’t make you make art the way they make art. They’re teaching you how to learn the basics and the techniques, but not making cookie cutters of themselves… I think that’s true of all our faculty. They’re teaching you how to make your own work… It’s important.”
Denise Seif
It’s clear that the faculty give their students a lot of creative freedom to put all of their heart into their work. This principle stands at the core of the art program at Parkland.
Those who visit have the chance to view many media of art, including drawings, paintings, photography, cinematography, ceramics, metalwork, and graphic design. This incredible diversity in types of artwork is invaluable to the art program, because it ensures that students have access to teachers with a wide range of differing skills.
There’s something on display that will surely pique the interest of anyone.
If you enjoy politics, check out the photography collage work of Peggy Shaw which makes commentary on some tragic events that took place in recent years.
Animal lovers have plenty to enjoy, with beautifully large paintings by Joan Stolz in memoriam of her beloved grey dog and eye-catching drawings of animal skulls by Matthew Watt.
For those who like ceramics, Laura O’Donnell depicts a crow on a ceramic vessel. This piece was made by way of an unpredictable process called raku firing, wherein she quickly heated up her vessel until growing orange in a special kiln. While the piece was still hot she laid horse hairs onto it to make small lines of black carbon around the outside of the vessel.
Interested in beautiful landscapes? A series of paintings by plain-air painter Melinda McIntosh show masterfully composed scenery including buildings, a cemetery, sunflowers, and more.
A large painted portraiture by Kelly White incorporates a vivid color pallet and contrast in styles from realistic to simplistic to create a really lively piece.
The faculty exhibit will be on display until September twenty-fourth, but don’t fret! If you don’t get the opportunity to check it out, there are plenty more exhibits being put on at the Giertz Gallery all year round.
Lisa Costello runs a tight schedule of exhibits, having only about a week in between the end and beginning of shows. There will be two more exhibits to view in 2022 and at least five more that are confirmed for 2023. If you are looking to get more information about the artists who have work on display, a curated book of biographies resides at the Giertz Gallery. You can support individual artists by sharing their works on social media or by purchasing their pieces directly from the gallery!
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For information about exhibitions, visit the Giertz Gallery website and follow them on social media Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
