To help bridge a gap between professors and students, LSU School of Art faculty members will express themselves — just like their students — through art.
The School of Art Faculty Exhibition opened in the Shaw Center for the Arts’ Glassell Gallery on Sept. 6 and will be open until Oct. 16.
School of Art director Rod Parker dubbed the show “a venerable tradition that goes back into the mists of time.”
Each of the school’s faculty members have substantial regional, national or international creative practices, Parker said. Ultimately, they do the same work they assign to their students, he said, even if that work is displayed in a farther venue.
“It is the single biggest opportunity of the year for students to see the work of the faculty with who they study, and for faculty to show each other and the public the direction their work is taking,” Parker said.
The full show occurs every two years. With 24 to 28 artists on staff, a full show only allows for about one or two works of art from each. During off years, a smaller show is held.
“This is an opportunity for them to show their work and for their students to connect with what their teachers are doing,” Parker said.
Leslie Friedman, an artist featured in the exhibit, is the school’s newest staff member. She specializes in printmaking, sculpture and installation.
Between her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Friedman spent two-and-a-half years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during which time she built a screen printing studio in her apartment.
“The faculty at the School of Art are talented artists from right here in Louisiana, all over the nation and beyond — a real world class faculty — so having my work in this show really makes me feel like ‘Wow, I’ve arrived,’” Friedman said.
An active player in the alternative gallery world, Friedman cofounded NAPOLEON, an art collective comprised of 10 artists and curatorial members, in 2011. Three years later, she completed a fellowship at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists and won the Fleisher Wind Challenge.
“It is always interesting to get to see artists’ work up close, especially after getting to know them personally first,” Friedman said. “It is like getting to see inside someone’s mind.”
Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally, with solo shows in Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island and Wilmington, Delaware. Focusing on political and social themes, her work often explores identities, stereotypes, gender and religion.
“I am passionate about art because it is the best way I know how to communicate my point of view, my concerns of the day and my feelings,” Friedman said.
She has three prints featured in the School of Art exhibit, all of which stray from her usual methodology. The prints are black and white collographs from “Vivianus” — a body of work she debuted in January — and have a gritty, earthy quality that depicts a utopian society.
Another featured faculty member, Hye Yeon Nam, is a digital media artist. She works on interactive installations and performance video. Nam “foregoes the complexity of social relationships by making the familiar strange and interpreting everyday behaviors in performative ways,” Parker said.
Her work has been showcased in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., Times Square, on the Canadian Discovery Channel and in several festivals in places ranging from China to Istanbul to Ireland.
“The faculty exhibition has, for me, always been an awesome opportunity to see, view and experience the incredible diversity and immense talent of my colleagues in the school,” Parker said.
The public is invited to attend a reception on Sept. 29 from 6-8 p.m, where guests will be given the opportunity to meet with the artists.
'Red Door to Almost Everywhere' by James Burke hangs on Friday, Sept. 14, 2016 at the LSU Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery. Burke's piece is acrylic on panel and will be on display until October 16, 2016.
