1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

“Draw, Build, Stamp,” runs Feb. 29 – April 18 at Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery; exhibit features work of Kentucky, Michigan and Florida artists

LEXINGTON, Ky.—“Draw, Build, Stamp,” opens Feb. 29 in Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery. The exhibition title honors the approach the three artists—Jim Cogswell of Michigan, Kendra Frorup of Florida and Dale Leys of Kentucky—take in creating their work. Ley’s drawings are influenced by his travel experiences and by science, philosophy and psychology. While growing up near the Wisconsin coast of Lake Michigan, he observed and collected various specimens that washed up on shore and one can easily identify bones, shells and natural fibers in his drawings. His work is among the permanent collections of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument Visitors Center in Colorado, Brown-Forman Company in Kentucky, the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri and the University of Kentucky Art Museum. Frorup has been described as a collector who uses discarded materials to create works that display poignancy and invigorating humor. For this exhibit, she has built two large sculptures that take the forms of a merry-go-round and a tree house. A native of the Bahamas, Frorup is an assistant professor of art at the University of Tampa, where she received her undergraduate degree. She holds a M.F.A. from Syracuse University. Cogswell has used stamps and vinyl stickers to create his work for this show. He was born and raised in Japan by his missionary parents and earned a B.A. in English literature from Rhodes College. He then returned to Japan to begin the study and practice of painting. He later earned

Bad Luck runs through December 5 at Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery; exhibit features local and international artists working in a variety of media

LEXINGTON, Ky.—A beautiful and humorous look a the idea of chance, fate and destiny, Bad Luck offers a sampling of local and international artists working in a variety of media. The exhibit runs through Wednesday, December 5 in Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery. Gallery hours are weekdays noon-5 p.m. and the gallery will also be open for the Lexington Gallery Hop Friday, November 16, from 5-8 p.m. Lexington artists include painter Georgia Henkel, new media artist Doreen Maloney and ceramicist and Transylvania art professor Dan Selter who joins Nancy Atakan, a photographer and video artist from Istanbul, Turkey. Other artists include Maxwell Holyoke, from Los Angeles and Rosamond Purcell, an internationally recognized photographer currently living in Boston. Bad Luck includes an exhibition catalog available for purchase. The Morlan Gallery will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, Wednesday, November 21-Friday, November 23. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or Morlan Gallery director Andrea Fisher at (859) 233-8142.

Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery opens 2007-08 season with Imprinted Bodies, an exhibit of visual art, poetry, documentaries and gallery talks that celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Imprinted Bodies, an exhibit of contemporary Hispanic and Latino work by a dozen artists, opens Friday, September 14 in Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery. The exhibit traces the notion of embodiment or corporality in contemporary Latino visual art, poetry and documentaries and runs through October 24, from noon-5 p.m. in the Morlan Gallery. The exhibit will also be open for the Lexington Gallery Hop Friday, September 21, from 5-8 p.m. The exhibiting artists, originally from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Columbia, as well as the United States, examine the interplay between immigration, illness, ethnic relations, identity and their own participation in the formation of hybrid cultures. These experiences, involving displacement, relocation, and memories of home, uncover multi-layered disruptions of identity. Artists include Ana Albertina Delgado, Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, Sonia Baez-Hernandez, Elizabeth Cerejido, Eduard Duval Carrie, Francisca Hernandez, Diane Kahlo, Connie Lloveras, Jesus Macarena-Avila, Raul Ortiz Bonilla, Diana Solis and Federico Uribe. Their work includes video, sculpture, mixed media, paintings and installation pieces. In recognition of September as Hispanic Heritage Month, the Morlan Gallery will provide a week of related programming called Project Alterity, which will provoke thought in multiple areas including politics, identity formation and roles within culture and society. Tuesday, September 18, 7-8:30 p.m., Carrick TheaterStrangers Among Us: The Plight of Immigrant Workers in Kentucky A panel discussion with Transylvania sociology professor Brian Rich about the challenges of immigrant workers in Kentucky. Question and answer session to

“The Shape of Words” opens March 7 in Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery; exhibit runs through Lexington Gallery Hop on April 20; poetry reading with Affrilachian Poets April 9

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Installation artists, book artists, writers and poets join “The Shape of Words,” Morlan Gallery’s newest exhibition. A celebration of the written word, “The Shape of Words” opens Wednesday, March 7, and runs through Friday, April 20. Artists in the show are Ben Durham of Midway, Mike Goodlett of Nicholasville, Pam Sexton of Lexington, Edwin Jager of Toronto and Heather Willems of Huntington, Ind. The exhibition also features five poet and artist pairings. Affrilachian poets Mitchell Douglas, Crystal Good, Bianca Spriggs, Natasha Marin and Frank X Walker will have poems interpreted on the walls of Morlan Gallery by Lexington artists Christine Kuhn, Mark Antonio Galvan Parrish, Sonya Brooks, Robert Morgan and Darryl Davis, respectively. Celebrate National Poetry Month on Monday, April 9, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the gallery by attending “The Shape of Words” poetry reading featuring Mitchell Douglas, Nikky Finney, Asha French, Jude McPherson, Frank X Walker and Hao Wang. This exhibition is free and open to the public. Morlan Gallery is open weekdays, noon to 5 p.m., and by special appointment. The gallery is closed for Transylvania’s spring break, March 12-16, except by special appointment. The gallery is a stop on the Lexington Gallery Hop Friday, April 20, from 5-8 p.m. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or Andrea Fisher, director of Morlan Gallery, at (859) 233-8142. More information about Morlan Gallery is available at www.transy.edu/morlan.

Art and community service come together with Transylvania’s Empty Bowls Project

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Members of the Transylvania community as well as potters from across Kentucky will use their artistic talents to benefit Lexington’s Community Action Council this holiday season with the Morlan Gallery’s Empty Bowls Project, Friday, December 1, and Monday-Friday, December 4-8. Potters have been busy making colorful ceramic bowls, which will sale for $10, throughout the exhibit. On Friday, December 8, a closing reception and supper will be held from 5-7 p.m., in the Rafskeller located on the lower level of the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. Dinner is free with a receipt from the purchase of a $10 ceramic bowl; dinner only is $5. All proceeds from the dinner and sale of the bowls will go to the Community Action Council, a local agency that provides meals, clothing and living essentials to Fayette County residents in need. In addition to the $10 soup bowls, larger one-of-a-kind artists’ bowls will be sold at a higher fixed price. The proceeds for these larger bowls will be equally divided between the artists and the Community Action Council. The Morlan Gallery is open weekdays, noon-5 p.m. For more information go to the Morlan Gallery Web site, www.transy.edu/morlan, call the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or Andrea Fisher, director of the Morlan Gallery, at (859) 233-8142.