Need a few minutes away from your work to spark your creative juices or see your current project from a different perspective? Take an Art Break in the galleries! Stop by the Bush Art Center for coffee, tea and treats and a stroll through the galleries. Art curator Shan Bryan-Hanson will be on hand to answer any questions you have about the art on exhibit, or you can stroll in silence. Warm drinks and a fresh take await!
Art Break will take place on the following dates; stop by for five minutes or settle in for a longer visit, whatever your schedule allows.
The campus is in a flurry of activity as the fall semester comes to a end. We wish it were not so, but the Bush Art Center Galleries will be closed for winter break. However, don’t fear, we will return for the spring semester!
Check out the shows and dates for the upcoming season and plan to come and enjoy them.
Until then, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a very Happy New Year.
As of this week the SNC Juried Student Art Exhibition for 2017-2018 is open for viewing. This year’s show features some truly breathtaking pieces. As you’re gearing up your stomach for the fast-approaching Thanksgiving feast, make sure to stop by and treat your eyes to this colorful spread.
This year’s awards judge is SNC alumnus Zane Statz, and awards will be announced at the exhibit reception this Thursday, November 16 from 5-7 p.m.
As October ends the start of this year’s Juried Student Art Exhibition draws closer and with it a chance to view some of the best student artwork SNC has to offer in a formal and professional setting. To get us in the mood, let’s take a closer look at some of the student artwork currently being displayed around the Bush Art Center (BAC).
Photography
The second floor of the BAC features some photographic selections from two of Professor Brandon Bauer’s classes: Introduction to Photography and Digital Imaging, and Contemporary Photographic Strategies. These selections make up a beautiful mosaic of digital imagery that shows just how powerful these students are with a manual camera in their hands.
Printmaking
Also on the second floor, Professor Katie Ries’ Beginning Printmaking class has a display of hand-made monotypes. These monotypes were made by both adding and removing ink from a piece of square plexiglass that is then run through the press with a piece of high quality paper to create the print. By using only black ink, the students are able to showcase their composition and design abilities, demonstrating that you don’t need color to make a powerful image.
Drawing
The display case on the first floor of the BAC features a selection of self-portraits from Professor Debbie Kupinsky’s class Introduction to Studio Art. Each student had to create a portfolio of 25 self-portraits for the assignment and then chose their best to display. Through the variation of line and style of mark making, the personality of each student truly shines through in each of their images.
Sculpture
Debbie Kupinsky’s Introductory Sculpture class is also garnering a lot of attention on the first floor with their installation of “Monumental Foam.” Each student took a small object and sculpted a larger-than-life-size version from only sheets of large foam board. These sculptures are a favorite of students and faculty passing through the art building. That’s some art that is certainly hard to miss!
Clubhouse Gallery
“Window Pains” by Jim Rogers
“Untitled” by Ben Wylie“Flesh Eater” by Emerson Bartch
Finally, students Emerson Bartch, Jim Rogers, and Ben Wylie currently have a sculpture display in the Clubhouse Gallery–the student-run gallery space on the second floor of the BAC.
The craftsmanship of these pieces, created for Debbie Kupinsky’s Intermediate Sculpture class, is truly phenomenal, and reads as a cohesive, professional exhibition. You would be remiss to miss out on seeing these pieces, so make sure to go and check them out.
If you enjoyed this selection of work by SNC students, make sure to attend the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition in the Baer Gallery to see other great pieces. The show runs from November 13-December 8 with a reception on November 16. It will surely be a display you will not want to miss.
Although the coming of fall this year has been somewhat unreliable of late, you can count on the changing of the exhibitions here at the SNC Art Galleries to be dependable and swift.
We have two new exhibitions this month, each with their own enticements and merits. Read on below to discover what’s new and get the details for this month’s gallery reception.
Baer Gallery
The Baer Gallery currently holds the exhibition Johanna Winters: What the Pleasures Told Us. Winters, as she tells us in her artist’s bio available on her official website, “hails from Minneapolis, MN and received her BA from the University of Wisconsin…In her work she applies modes of printmaking, hand-driven animation, and puppetry to consider ideas about vanity and shame.” Her work in this particular exhibition, as she tells us in her artist’s statement available for viewing at the exhibition, “…behaves as coping rituals for anxieties about aging, vanity, disappointment, shame, and pleasure.” Winter’s is currently working towards her MFA at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Winter’s exhibition at the Baer Gallery is guest-curated by Katie Ries, SNC Art Faculty member. Ries provides an insightful statement about Winter’s work also available for consumption at the gallery. One line in particular sums the mysterious and poetic work up beautifully: “This is how it feels to be human, coming up short, loving things, and figuring it out as we go along.”
Godschalx Gallery
This month the Godschalx Gallery features the show Graphic Design History & Rock and Roll. This show is comprised of work made by St. Norbert College art students. The show features dozens of original band posters, each variously influenced by a historical graphic design style. Some of the bands featured are well-known, and some come out of the imaginations of the students themselves.
Each poster in the show is impressive by itself, but collaged together in one space they present a power-punch of movement and color that is not to be missed.
Gallery Reception
A reception for both of these shows will be held on October 19, from 5-7p.m. and will feature a performance art piece by Johanna Winters. Light food will be available as well as wine for those of age. All of us at the gallery bid you welcome and hope to see you there!
This year’s SNC Day was a smashing success all around, and the activities held at the Bush Art Center were no exception. Over 700 students, alumni, and community members visited the BAC to tour the galleries, make pennants to mirror Katie Ries’ piece “Pennants 2017” currently showing in the Art Faculty Triennial Exhibition, and earn their Observation badge with the Land Scouts—an organization started by Ries and focused on promoting good stewardship with the land around you.
Scroll down to see some photos from the day’s events and relive the fun right along with us.
Visitors enjoy Fr. Neilson’s work in the Baer Gallery.Some lucky visitors get to hear from Fr. Neilson (left), the artist himself.A steady stream of visitors came to make their own pennants throughout the day.Artist and faculty member Katie Ries brings her son to make a pennant.Gallery Director and Curator Shan Bryan-Hanson helps the daughter of Art faculty member Debbie Kupinsky create a pennant of her own.Visitors enjoy the Triennial Faculty Exhibition.Art major Katie Hopkins shows off her humorous side with this Magritte-inspired pennant.Art students and alumni volunteers ready to help make SNC Day at the Bush Art Center happen.Earning those badges!A Land Scouts field book for participants to record their observations of campus in return for earning a limited-edition, St. Norbert College color Observation badge.A small selection of the field books handed in.
St. Norbert student, Neale Tracy, takes in Katie Ries’ The Land Scouts’ Guide Book.
Monday, August 28th marked the opening of 2017’s highly anticipated Triennial Faculty Exhibition in the Baer and Godschalx Galleries here at St. Norbert College.
You’ve had them in class, seen them around campus, or perhaps you haven’t had the grace of meeting them yet, but from now until September 22nd come explore the personal creations of SNC’s art faculty and discover what drives them to create outside of the academic setting.
Exhibits range from graphic prints and gouache paintings, to both stoneware and found-object sculpture and multimedia photography displays. Weekly gallery hours run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, from 9am-3pm, and on Thursday from 9am-7pm.
Join us on Thursday, September 7th, from 5-7pm for the opening reception of the exhibition which includes food and drink, and the chance to meet the artists.
And don’t forget to stop by the galleries on SNC day, Saturday, September 16th for a unique look at the exhibits as well as some interactive activities suitable for the whole family.
Read below for some preview photos and information about each faculty members’ exhibition:
Katie Ries’ nature-inspired exhibition revolves around her group, the Land Scouts, which promotes interaction and respect for the natural world around you, whether that be in a rural, or urban environment. Her paper and felt pennants, along with her series of trading card paintings, seek to foster a camaraderie between friends and individuals as they observe and draw what they see around them.
Brian Pirman showcases both his graphic design and sculptural talents, but with a strong theme of collage running through all of them, tying the pieces together although they are each distinct. Pirman’s incredible ability to layer both two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects create works of art that invite continual viewing, and with each new look a different aspect of the piece is uncovered.
Coming out of a very productive summer sabbatical, Shan Bryan-Hanson has a full arsenal at the ready for the Triennial Faculty Exhibition. Initially inspired by Victorian “dew walkers” as well as late 19th and early 20th century decorative design, Bryan-Hanson’s paintings bring together both the free form and geometrical aspects of nature. Along with the airy, jewel-toned pastels running throughout all of the paintings, walking through this exhibit will make you feel like you are in the height of summer although we are already well on our way into fall.
For the Faculty Exhibition Brandon Bauer presents an abbreviated version of his show, entitled Landscapes of Absence. In his work, Bauer flips the historical notion of erasure from photographs on its head by transforming it into a power for good. By erasing the dark and gruesome elements of ISIS beheadings from their original landscapes, Bauer seeks to restore both the humanity and dignity to the places and individuals affected by the actions of ISIS. With both visual and audial stimulation, Landscapes of Absence presents a powerful showing that promotes a depth of thought on the concept of narrative control in today’s media entrenched world.
Well known around campus for delivering consistently engaging art history lectures, James P. Neilson, O.Praem. certainly doesn’t disappoint when delivering art itself. Working in the Arte Povera aesthetic, Neilson uses ordinary, found objects left to him by former faculty member Bill Bohné to create extraordinary and otherworldly sculptures that inspire anyone to become an artist by first appreciating the beauty immediately around them.
Debbie Kupinsky’s exhibition focuses on the hybrid spaces that are created when humans come into contact with and affect the natural world. Using porcelain, stoneware, and found objects, Kupinsky creates an ethereal yet imposing wall-to-wall show in the Godschalx Gallery.
Though we close for the current season on May 5 (five more days to catch the Senior Art Exhibition), we have many good things in the works for fall. See you in August!
Need a few minutes away from your work to spark your creative juices or see your current project from a different perspective? Take an Art Break in the galleries! Stop by the Bush Art Center for coffee, tea and treats and a stroll through the galleries. Art curator Shan Bryan-Hanson will be on hand to answer any questions you have about the art on exhibit, or you can stroll in silence. Warm drinks and a fresh take await! 
