Morlan Gallery

Nana Lampton LEXINGTON, Ky.—Landscape comes alive when seen through the eyes of painter, poet, business woman and world traveler Nana Lampton. The Morlan Gallery will open an exhibit of Lampton’s work, “Beyond Boundaries: New Work by Nana Lampton,” on November 10. The exhibit will be open through December 6, including for the Lexington Gallery Hop on November 18. The gallery will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday November 24-25. New paintings of the dramatic Andes Mountains and the flowered fields of Nova Scotia will be shown alongside Kentucky’s own vivid land and riverscapes. Poetry and sketchbooks from Lampton’s travels are included in this premiere exhibition. “We think of its vast dimensions, yet we know only five percent is visible to us,” said Lampton. “The artist thinks about the rest, and its effect on us.” A bonus exhibition is in the Shearer Student Art Gallery. Juried by Lampton, the exhibit brings together the artworks of Transylvania students similarly moved by travel and sense of place. Lampton’s “Dark Energy,” 2011 Lampton earned a B.A. in English literature at Wellesley, and an M.A. at the University of Virginia, and she attended programs at the Harvard Business School. In 2004, she received an M.F.A. in writing from Spalding University. Lampton has also studied drawing and painting at the Corcoran School of Art and the Louisville Visual Art Association. She has written several books of poetry including “Bloom of a Split Board,” “Snowy Owl Gathers

Read “"Beyond Boundaries: New Work by Nana Lampton," runs Nov. 10-Dec. 6 in the Morlan Gallery.”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—To open the 2011-12 academic year, Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery is hosting two interactive works and one generative work for “Unveiling the Painted Curtain: 21st C Interactive Art,” which runs through Oct. 28. The exhibition title refers to new media artist and theorist Maurice Benayoun’s idea that the very first interactive art was initiated in the 5th century BC when Italian painters Parrhasius and Zeuxis had a competition to determine who was the better artist. It is said Parrhasius won when Zeusix tried to physically unveil his painting, only to discover the curtain was actually paint. Thus, Zeuxis’ gesture becomes part of the painting. The exhibition features “Toys’ Opera” by Yoni Niv, Elad Shniderman and Adam Kendall; “Higher Calling” by Tim Polashek; and “Forgetfulness” by Ivica Ico Bukvic. “Toys’ Opera” is a multimedia installation or performance project for multi-channel video, multi-channel sound-art and physical-computing. It’s centered around a small universe of HO-scale trains, models, contact microphones and miniature cameras on a 5’ x 4’ stage. Most of the trains are serially-controlled via Arduino microcontrollers. “Toys’ Opera” creates an abstract narrative built by machine-like formal processes executed upon the recognizable trains and models. It explores the boundaries between suggested and real worlds and wants to create a corrupted sense of reality. “Higher Calling,” created by Timothy Polashek, assistant professor of music at Transylvania, is an interactive installation manipulating sound and images of an infomercial from the 1950s for telephones. Simple

Read “Morlan Gallery’s first show of the 2011-12 academic year features interactive and generative works, runs through Oct. 28”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University is hosting the Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival, Kentucky’s first such festival, on Sept. 16 and 17. The festival, which gets its name from Transylvania’s 300 North Broadway address, explores creative manifestations of technology through concerts and exhibitions of digital art and music. Over two days, Studio 300 will feature over 30 different stage performances and offer 33 art installations, interactive pieces and video/sound works by artists and musicians from around the world. All events are free and open to the public. Timothy Polashek, Transylvania music professor and Studio 300 director, writes in a variety of media and styles, including vocal, instrumental, electro-acoustic music, text/sound compositions and interactive performance systems. His music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad. “As a composer of computer music, I’m always looking for innovative ways to use and develop technologies for artistic purposes,” Polashek said.  “I have had the privilege of participating in many national and international festivals of digital and interactive arts, and they’re simply a lot of fun, and the public is really curious about these things, especially interactive works and multimedia works. “Lexington is a great city with a vibrant arts scene, but there are not yet many groups working with technology. Transylvania has a long history of fostering innovations over the centuries, so it’s natural that we invite these pioneering musicians, artists and technologists to campus.” Polashek hopes to expand the festival into

Read “Transylvania to host digital art and music festival Sept. 16 and 17; international, national, regional and local artists and musicians will participate; free and open to the public”