Admission is free and open to the public.

Jim Sherraden is Manager, Chief Designer and Archivist at Hatch Show Print, one of America’s oldest surviving show poster and design shops.  Since 1984 he has overseen its transition from a cultural survivor to a widely recognized graphic design icon and destination for letterpress enthusiasts. He is the co-writer of Hatch Show Print, The History of A Great American Poster Shop, published by Chronicle Books, now in its fifth printing.  He is also the creator of one of-a-kind pieces of art called monoprints, based on the shops archive, which are collected by individuals and institutions worldwide.

Hatch Show Print is a one-of-a-kind, extraordinary letterpress poster and design shop located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1879, Hatch is still printing and designing over 600 jobs a year, using the original wood type found on countless posters advertising carnivals, circuses, and vaudeville and minstrel shows. The shop is historically best known for it’s country music posters, and, since 1992, has operated as a non-profit division of the Country Music Hall of Fame(R) and Museum. Not resting on its heritage, Hatch operates under the mantra of “preservation through production”, and has probably done posters for many of your favorite contemporary entertainers.

http://www.hatchshowprint.com

This event is a part of the Kansas State University Department of Art Visiting Artists Series for the 2011-2012 Season.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Image information: “Triple Johnny” and “Type” by Hatch Show Print.

CO OP
MFA Thesis Exhibition – Luke Severson
Mark A. Chapman Gallery
116 Willard Hall

February 13 – 24, 10am – 5pm

CLOSING RECEPTION Friday, February 24, 5 – 8 pm

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present a lecture by nationally recognized photographer Robin Dru Germany, January 26, 5:30 pm in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, Willard Hall on Kansas State University campus. In addition to her lecture, the aritst will present her collection of works in the exhibition “Surface Tension” in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery from January 2–27.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Robin Germany first began experimenting with photography in the green half bath behind the laundry room. Her father taught her how to develop film and her mother reminded her that film is cheap. She studied philosophy as an undergraduate and subsequently earned an MFA in photography. Currently, Germany is an Associate Professor of Photography at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. She has received numerous grants & awards for her work including a Polaroid Artist’s Award and a regional NEA grant. Collections include: Center for Creative Photography, Polaroid, The Boise Art Museum, Texas Tech University Museum of Art and numerous private collections. Her photographic work is an inquiry into the nature of being human.

http://www.robingermany.com

This event is a part of the Kansas State University Department of Art Visiting Artists Series for the 2011-2012 Season.

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Image information:

1) Llano river: Plant, 2011, inkjet on paper, 40×33 inches

2) Playa Lake: Blue Plastic, 2011, inkjet on paper, 40×33 inches

Kansas State University BFA students Patricia Adams, Zachary Droge, Alyssandra Gilbert, Garrett Heil, and Shannon Nicks are featured in the final of three BFA Thesis Exhibitions, opening December 12, 2011, in Mark A. Chapman Gallery

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present the third and final BFA Thesis Exhibition for the fall season featuring Patricia Adams, Zachary Droge, Alyssandra Gilbert, Garrett Heil and Shannon Nicks. The artists will present an exhibition of their work from December 12 – 16, 2011 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, first floor Willard Hall. Gallery hours are 9am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. There will be a reception for the artists on Friday evening, December 16th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, in the gallery.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Raised in Pennsylvania, painter Patricia Adams credits her passion for painting to her inspirational high school art teacher. She took a detour from art for a few years – studying Business Management and raising her own family before returning to study painting at Kansas State University. Her love for landscape developed after her move to Kansas. It was then that, she says, “I began to see and feel the bond the people have with the land in Kansas.” Using the surface of natural birch panel and influences ranging from Edward Hopper to Lisa Grossman, a Kansas painter, she has developed her own approach to creating landscape work. She says, “Most recently my process has been to start my landscapes on location as representations in the traditional manner. I then develop them further by simplifying and abstracting elements.”

Sculptor Zachary Droge began using humor as a vehicle for his art in elementary school. He says, “I was working on making my friends laugh with my art more than working on craft. Looking back, my general concept of why I produce art has not really changed.”  His interest in sculpture was reinforced in high school where he obtained the unusual opportunity to make sculptures in a welding shop. For his BFA thesis work, Droge has created his own kind of playground using airplane imagery, deployed parachutes, and child-like grotesque figures. He seeks a magical humorous quality in his work. He encourages, in his words, “the adult’s descent back into childish ways.”

The daughter and granddaughter of artists in Littleton, Colorado, printmaker Alyssandra Gilbert believes her choice to be an artist is genetic. This choice was reinforced with successes in art competitions in elementary and middle school. After exploiting her talents in soccer for a few years in high school, she discovered the transformative powers of printmaking while attending Kansas State University. Her BFA thesis work focuses on images of the human face using toner wash and aquatint techniques. These print techniques allow Gilbert to transcend simple representation and orchestrate an exciting dialog of faces emerging from within the ink on the paper surface. She says, “The faces, in my prints, are no longer defined by lines, but now float and weave on the paper.”

Raised in Olathe, Kansas, printmaker Garrett Heil likes creating with his hands –whether playing in the dirt or grounding a plate. He developed his passion for art in high school where he found friends who were also interested in art, got involved in art projects outside of classes, and began to win competitions. Line quality being a major interest for him, his discovery of printmaking was a revelation. He says, “Drawing through a thin rolled-on ground with an etching needle, I am able to create both a believable visual illusion and a highly structured form.”  Inspired by medical oddity studies from real life victims of skeletal abnormality, Heil explores issues of diversity in his intaglio prints. He says, “The imagery in my prints depicts examples of people who are not, and don’t feel, the same on the inside. Like you and I, each one of these humans lives and will die in our world.”

Ceramics artist, Shannon Nicks considers working in clay a kind of therapy. She says, “Working with ceramics has always been medicinal to me, but it has never mattered much exactly what I was throwing or making until now.”  Using her influences growing up in Turkey, her BFA thesis work is focused on researching and creating lidded jars. She uses many references of Turkish culture to develop her brightly decorated forms. The knob on the lid of a jar might reference the architecture of a mosque for example. She says, “The overall aesthetics is a tribute to this beautiful country and what a happy time this was in my life.”

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present the second of three BFA Thesis Exhibitions of the fall season featuring Jacqueline Bundy, Beth Hanna, Lindsey Thayer, and Nathaniel Thompson-Weaver. The artists will present an exhibition of their work from December 5 – 9, 2011 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, first floor Willard Hall. Gallery hours are 9am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. There will be a reception for the artists on Friday evening, December 9th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, in the gallery.

Admission is free and open to the public.

As a high school student, photographer Jacqueline Bundy had the opportunity to travel and work in Hungary and Mexico. Taking along a brand new digital camera, she became increasingly prolific and focused in her subjects. She realized she was mostly interested in local people – what they were wearing, what they did, and how they communicated with each other. It isn’t surprising that years later, her BFA thesis work would involve documenting cultural body image and identity. Bundy’s photographs ask the viewer to reconsider the cultural standards of beauty. She says, “Studies show that 90% of women are unhappy with their physical appearance…but I feel it is my job as a photographer, to reverse this feeling of self-hatred and unworthiness.”  Bundy seeks images that are dramatic, and beautiful in their own ways – just like all of us. She says,  “Everyone in the world is different and should be loved for their imperfections.”

Aside from growing up in a creative household in Topeka, Kansas, metals artist Beth Hanna was most profoundly inspired by her first trip to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. Her first experience viewing the George Seurat painting, Le Grand Jatte was a pivotal moment in her artistic life. The micro detail of each dot that comprised the painting created a profound interest in the fine points of creative practice. She says, “From that point on, art was in the details, and details made my art.”  In her current work, Hanna applies her detailed craft to colorful inventions of science fiction, nature, and whimsy. She says, “All of my work is driven by my two favorite questions, what if and why not? I have found that working through these questions I push myself to create work that is outside the boundaries of the status quo.”

Photographer Lindsey Thayer grew up in a home where creative process and access was everywhere. She has vivid memories of watching her father’s artwork evolve from beginnings to final pieces, or her mother shooting with a Polaroid camera and eagerly observing as the image appears. Specific opportunities with photography provided her with her first awards in local and state competitions as a child – slowly developing to her discovery of Kansas State University’s photography program in the Department of Art.      Thayer’s black and white works for this exhibition concern unique perspectives on the complex terrain of the human body. She says, “My work frequently involves really zoning in on unnoticed abstract qualities it contains.” Distinctive lighting adds to the mysterious qualities of these photographs.  She says, “By using low and directional lighting techniques I am able to make the human form appear as if it were a landscape.”

Ceramics artist Nathaniel Thompson-Weaver began his studies in the sciences, with ceramics as a hobby. He says, “Two years later I had thoroughly burned out on the sciences and had cemented a love for ceramics late one night during finals week while hopped up on no-doz and Lovecraft.” He chose to study at Kansas State with Yoshi Ikeda with a concentration on functional forms in clay. Function is a first priority in developing his forms. He says, “It is easy enough to make a vessel to contain fluid or food but the piece is not truly completed until it is incorporated as a part of the owners life.” Thompson-Weaver’s work isn’t without its own whimsical personality. He says, “The occasional spate of whimsy aside, I strive for forms that are pleasing to the hand and eye and convey a sense of personality while also performing their designated tasks with the minimum of fuss.”

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present the first of three BFA Thesis Exhibitions of the fall season featuring Amy Hageman, Kylee Luckeroth, Natasha Mai-Bowmaker, and Lindsey Maxwell. The artists will present an exhibition of their work from November 28 to December 2, 2011 in the Mark A. Chapman Gallery, first floor Willard Hall. Gallery hours are 9am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. There will be a reception for the artists on Friday evening, December 2nd, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, in the gallery.

Admission is free and open to the public.

As a middle school student, photographer Amy Hageman had the opportunity to shadow a professional photographer. This began a serious interest in photography, leading to many courses in all aspects of the discipline. Positive feedback of friends and success in photo competitions made her even more serious about photography. Hageman believes photographs are images that need to be looked at on a deeper level. She says, “Photographs have the ability to translate or imply elements such as time, age, history, memory; all part of our reasons for often developing relationships and bond with a person, place or thing.” Her current photographs depict discarded farm equipment that, in aging and becoming non-functional, have evolved into something else. Of an old wagon she suggests, “The distressed wood that once was the foundation of a strong working object is now home to nature.”

Hard work, dedication, humbleness, and the ability to see the good in people and things – these were the things taught to photographer Kylee Luckeroth while growing up in Seneca, Kansas, in the heart of Nemaha County. In her first photography course, she discovered her love for the discipline. It was the extra time and determination it took to learn the details of developing a good print that resulted in having her images recognized and appreciated by the professor and classmates. In her BFA thesis work depicting Kansas women, she attempts to capture the qualities she learned growing up, and in her first struggles with photography. She says, “I find a repeating theme in the history of Kansas’s women – there are four main qualities: strength, independence, as well as beauty and grace.”

Photographer Natasha Mai-Bowmaker grew up in Wichita, Kansas dreaming of becoming a marine biologist. Deciding to remain in Kansas, and noting the lack of ocean life in the immediate region, her interests turned to photography. Her work has been informed by foreign study trips in France and England. At the Tate Modern Museum in London, she experienced a photo project involving documentation of specific time and place in an exhibition titled Exposed Voyeurism: Surveillance and the Camera. This experience had significant impact on her current thesis work – panoramic documentation of the Konza Prairie at different times and seasons. She says, “Ultimately the image created is something that not only is aesthetically pleasing to the eye but also may question its method of creation.”

Raised in an artistic town of Salina, Kansas, photographer Lindsey Maxwell credits her hometown and family for her creative instincts. Health issues and personal tragedies also led her to concentrate on the arts. She says, “Working and seeing the physical outcome of my labor quickly through photographs made me feel like I still had a place on the earth during emotionally draining times.” Her thesis work, titled Beauty: In Death, involves detail images of roses as they begin to wither. She says of these works, “With only the imperfections as the central focus, it is apparent that even though the roses are wilting, they find beauty in a new light.”

The Mark A. Chapman Gallery on the first floor of Willard Hall opened in 2005. Cheryl Mellenthin and Mark Chapman funded a complete renovation of the former Willard Hall Gallery, increasing the exhibition space to over 1,400 square feet along with 400 square feet dedicated to exhibition preparation and kitchen facilities. The Department of Art hosts BFA and MFA student exhibitions in the gallery as part of graduation requirements each semester. The technology friendly gallery serves not only exhibition purposes, but also provides a location for an active Visiting Artist lecture program.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present a lecture by artist Marius Lehene, November 15, 3:45 pm in the Town Hall of the Leadership Studies Building on Kansas State University campus.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Marius Lehene is Associate Professor and head of the Area of Drawing in the Art Department at Colorado State University. A native of Romania, he holds a MFA in Drawing and Painting from Southern Methodist University (2001) and a BA in Economics from Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania (1996). After studying for three years at the University of Art and Design, Cluj-Napoca (Romania), he moved to the United States in 1998. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and has done collaborative projects with other artists and writers, notably with poet Matthew Cooperman. His work has been shown in the United States and internationally.

Excerpt from Ruxandra Trandafoiu’s curatorial essay for the catalogue of the show “Description Without Place,” Bunker Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2011:

“Marius Lehene is part of the ‘30 now generation’ of Romanian artists – artists who grew up in the 1970s among the grey concrete of communist tower blocks, learnt their trade during the chaotic post-communist transition and now, in their 30s, and thus at the peak of their artistic energy, work both abroad and at home from a postmodern and cosmopolitan position of doubleness. Like [other Romanian artists such as] Mircea Cantor, Călin Dan, Adrian Ghenie or Rozalinda Borcilă, artists who have spent at least part of their professional career in other countries, Lehene now lives and works in the United States, with occasional returns ‘home’.

In fact, his work cannot be understood without acknowledging his existential doubleness as both an emigrant and an immigrant. His work is thus located in what Homi Bhabha calls a ‘third space’ or an ‘in-between’ culture, and is an expression of a ‘double consciousness’, in the classic description belonging to W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Gilroy. […] Previous series of drawings, paintings and installations exhibited in the United States – ‘Immigrant’, ‘Between Here and There’ or ‘Archaeologies’ – echo his concerns with recurring displacements, journeys, multiple meanings, layered histories and identities.”

—Ruxandra Trandafoiu, Edge Hill University, UK

http://www.mariuslehene.com

This event is a part of the Kansas State University Department of Art Visiting Artists Series for the 2011-2012 Season.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Image information:

In-between Cement, 2011, mixed media on canvas, 40×48 inches. Photo by artist.

Invisible Cities (Cluj.Fort Collins.Varanasi I), 2011, mixed media on mylar, 24×36 inches. Photo by Radu Salcudean.

3000 Ways To Celebrate

October 31 – November 18

Mark A. Chapman Gallery

116 Willard Hall

Kansas State University

Hours: Mon – Fri 10 – 5

Artist Reception:  Friday, 11/11/11 from 5 – 7

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present the lecture “Andrew DeCaen, 2001–2011,” by printmaker Andrew DeCaen on November 3, 5:30 pm in room 114 Willard Hall on Kansas State University campus.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Andrew DeCaen was born in Ventura, California in 1974. He received a BA from the University of Dallas in 1997 and an MFA from the University of South Dakota in 2001. DeCaen’s prints, drawings, and paper sculpture have been shown broadly in the US and internationally in Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Japan, Korea, Romania, and Turkey. DeCaen lives with his wife and daughter in Denton, Texas where he is also an Assistant Professor of Art and the Printmaking Area Coordinator for the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas.

DeCaen says about his work: “Eating and other rituals surrounding food are the context of this body of work. We eat our meals in various states of awareness of the act and its significance. I find myself looking with curiosity at the space, time, and manner in which we eat, prepare, and acquire our meals. My original perception of these moments is often interrupted or distracted. I return to them with the attempt to create a curious space where questions form. By re-contextualizing the familiar, these images aim to attract questions about food science, consumerism, and the sacred and mundane act of eating.”

http://www.andrewdecaen.com

This event is a part of the Kansas State University Department of Art Visiting Artists Series for the 2011-2012 Season.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Image information:

Andrew DeCaen printing his lithograph “Imperfect Meal Sequence I”

“Imperfect Meal Sequence I,” Lithograph, Screenprint, 2011

“Pop Family,” Lithograph, 2010

MANHATTAN —Kansas State University Department of Art will present the lecture “A.M. Martens –Ceramics Artist in Residence”, by artist A.M. Martens, November 2, 5:30 pm in room 114 Willard Hall on Kansas State University campus.

Admission is free and open to the public.

A. M. Martens (b. 1980) is a ceramics and installation-based artist from South Dakota. She received her BFA in 2003 from Minnesota State University, Mankato and studied for two months at Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains and a post-baccalaureate at the University of Tennessee. In 2006, Martens returned to Minnesota State University where she began exploring the installation art form and received an MA degree in 2008. From there she went on to pursue an MFA degree at Michigan State University where she was awarded a University Distinguished Fellowship and graduated in 2011. Through her installations and sculptures her work explores the desires people have to be connected to one another whether it is through relationships, memories, or today’s ever-increasing use of communication devices. In 2011, she was awarded a solo exhibition at the Whitdel Art Center in Detroit, Michigan through the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit that featured her installation T•ex/ac•tual Duet. Three of her pieces are currently on exhibition at the Sculpture Center in Cleveland as part of the SculptureX Symposium. A. M. Martens currently resides in Manhattan, Kansas as the Kansas State University Artist in Residence in ceramics.

This event is a part of the Kansas State University Department of Art Visiting Artists Series for the 2011-2012 Season.

Funded in part by KSU SGA Fine Arts Fee

Image information:

“T•ex/ac•tual Duet”, 2011

“Kept in Needles”, 2011