University of Memphis MFA Students Host Open Studio Night 2008

 

Memphis, TN

 

MFA Open Studio Night

Thursday, October 30, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The University of Memphis

Communication and Fine Arts Building, 2^nd Floor

 

 

The University of Memphis Fine Arts MFA students are hosting an Open Studio Night on Thursday, October 30, from 5:00 until 8:00 p.m.  Open studios and a gallery space are located on the second floor of the Communication and Fine Arts Building.  Signs will direct guests from the large main parking lot on Central Avenue to the CFA Building.  The Communication and Fine Arts Building is located directly behind the Music and Theater buildings and is south of Central Avenue.  In conjunction with this event, MFA students at the Memphis College of Art are hosting a Graduate Studio Open House from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.  The Memphis College of Art Graduate studios are located on Poplar Avenue at Tucker, across the street from Overton Park.

 

University of Memphis artists include photographers Lea Alexander, Michael Darough, Erin Jennings, Yijun (Pixy) Liao, Chase Malone, Jason Miller, Raleigh Rodger and Kate Wichlinski.  MFA sculptors include Brooke Foy, Elisha Gold, Colin Kidder, Denice Rhodes and ceramicist Robert McCarroll.  Painters include Eric Bork, Sarah Boyce, Ross McLean, Sunny Montgomery, Chandler Pritchett, and Ryan Vanderley.

 

Work ranges from Robert McCarroll’s “Fiesta Ware”—car parts meet production pottery, to the large scale figural oil paintings of Ryan Vanderley.  Colin Kidder “explores issues of aging and the dependence of man on machine.”  Eli Gold works with metal, Chandler Pritchett uses new media techniques to bridge the gap between watercolor painting and electronic art, Yijun (Pixy) Liao showcases “film stills” – images created from films imagined in her own mind, while an unnamed artist replied cryptically “PORK WILL BE SERVED!”  She refused to acknowledge whether or not the said ‘pork’ was in addition to the usual art opening refreshments or was of the barrel variety… 

 

U of M’s participating artists are not strangers to the Memphis, or to the national art scene:

 

Sculptor Brooke Foy, who currently has work in the Delta Exhibition in Little Rock, showed last year in Brooklyn, New York.   

 

Last summer The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s series Brooks Introduces featured the paintings of Sarah Boyce.   

 

Filmmaker/photographer Erin Jennings has screened films at Indie Memphis Film Festival 2005 and 2008, Nashville Film Festival 2007, with one film in international distribution.

 

In addition to his own work, Eric Bork organized a show, Mixtape, for a space on South Main. 

 

These are but a few examples of creative activities emerging from the Art Department of the University of Memphis.

 

 Chandler Pritchett, currently in a group show at Biggs Powell Interior Design AND looking forward to her thesis show in early November at AMUM sums things up nicely:

“One of my favorite things about open studio nights is getting to share my work with undergraduate students… this gives me a great opportunity to start a dialogue with people I might not get a chance to talk to otherwise.  I’ve especially enjoyed getting to discuss the art program with high school seniors who have come out to previous open studios to see what the University of Memphis Art Department has to offer.”  

ARTISTS:
Lea Alexander, Eric Bork, Sarah Boyce, Michael Darough, Brooke Foy, Elisha Gold, Erin Jennings, Colin Kidder, Yijun (Pixy) Liao, Robert McCarroll, Ross McLean, Chase Malone, Jason Miller, Sunny Montgomery, Chandler Pritchett, Denice Rhodes, Raleigh Rodger, Ryan Vanderley, Kate Wichlinski