The West Virginia Division of Culture and History has unveiled a new exhibition, "Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC): 2007 Members’ Exhibition," in the Art and Balcony galleries of the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. The exhibition will remain on display through Oct. 21 and is free and open to the public.
SECAC is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote the visual arts in higher education. It facilitates cooperation and fosters ongoing dialog about pertinent creative, scholarly and educational issues among teachers and administrators in universities, colleges, community colleges, professional art schools, and museums. The organization represents artists from 12 states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Charleston will host the annual SECAC conference this year from Oct. 17 - 20.
The work exhibited features paintings, prints, photography, drawings, ceramics, sculpture, mixed media and video animation. The juried exhibition is an annual feature of SECAC’s conference, and serves to highlight contemporary art created by professors, students, and independent artists in the Southeastern region and beyond.
Dr. J. Susan Isaacs, professor of art history and curator of the Department of Art Galleries, Towson University, and adjunct curator, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts was the juror for the exhibition. “Much of the work presented dealt with materiality. Various approaches to abstract form seemed especially strong as well, and there was also a variety of approaches to contemporary painting that demonstrated a sense of humor and a fascination with the slightly offbeat,” she said.
The Balcony Gallery spotlights four installation pieces by Barry Freedland, the SECAC 2006 Artist’s Fellowship winner. He is an assistant professor of art at New College of Florida and a sculptor who interfaces with computer technology to create complex machine-oriented objects. His installation pieces made use of a computer numeric control (CNC), a controller that links a computer to various tools, including a wood router or a metalworking-milling machine and allows the machines to sculpt computer-generated or digitized models.
Freedland has exhibited in more than 25 group shows and his work has been on display throughout the United States in national juried group and solo shows. His one-man shows have been featured in the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York City, the Manatee Community College Gallery in Bradenton, Fla., and the Mobius Gallery in Boston, Mass., among others.
For more information about the SECAC: 2007 Members’ Exhibition, contact Emily Ritchey, exhibits coordinator for the Division, at (304) 558-0220, ext. 128.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Cultural Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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