1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

‘Lavish!’ opens at Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery on Feb. 23

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery will present an installation sculpture that pays homage to the wild, old growth forests on Pine Mountain from Feb. 23 to March 30. “Lavish!: New Work by Zoé Strecker” is a long-term project by the Transylvania art professor that features community-embroidered images of natural communities and organisms in the forests on the southeastern Kentucky mountain. Stitched by volunteer embroiderers from across the country, the printed silk organza panels hang within a circular, bent wood structure that measures 22 feet across and 10 feet high. “Lavish” includes an active embroidery studio and a side exhibition titled “Inspired by Wild Places” by selected members of the Pine Mountain Collective: Rebecca Allan, Vallorie Henderson, Erika Strecker and Brian and Sara Turner. Pine Mountain Collective artists participate in three-day, on-site retreats co-hosted by Strecker, Erik Reece and The Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. More than 100 artists have attended the retreats, and many have exhibited, performed and published creative work inspired by their experience of Pine Mountain.   Special events and hours – Opening Reception for the Artists: Friday, Feb. 23, 5-7 p.m.– Weekend Hours: Sunday, Feb. 25, 6:30 -7:30 p.m.– Art Talk with Zoé Strecker: Thursday, March 8, 6 p.m.– Lexington Gallery Hop: Friday, March 16, 5-8 p.m.– Wild Things: Selected Artists from the Pine Mountain Sessions: Friday, March 23, 7-8:30 p.m., Carrick Theater, Mitchell Fine Arts Center. Kentucky musicians Daniel Martin Moore and Julia Purcell will perform original

Morlan Gallery, The Parachute Factory to start new year with New Domesticity: Women’s Work in Women’s Art

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery and The Parachute Factory will kick off 2018 with New Domesticity: Women’s Work in Women’s Art, a single exhibition that will span two downtown art galleries from Jan. 16 to Feb. 16. The exhibition, curated by art history professor Emily Elizabeth Goodman, examines how Kentucky women artists incorporate elements of domestic work and life into their art practices. In particular, New Domesticity explores how different artists engage with the idea of women’s “traditional roles” in our contemporary culture. To prepare for the exhibition, Goodman and Morlan Gallery Director Andrea Fisher traveled across Kentucky this past summer to meet women artists where they live and work—which in many cases are one in the same place. A Transylvania Kenan Fund for Faculty and Student Enrichment grant funded the research. The artists in the exhibition are Stacey Chinn, Jane Burch Cochran, Rae Goodwin, Judith Pointer-Jia, Diane Kahlo, Helen LaFrance, Lori Larusso, Colleen Merrill, Stacey Reason, Jennifer A. Reis, Kristin Richards, Justine Riley, Bianca Lynne Spriggs, Bentley Utgaard and L.A. Watson. Morlan Gallery is open weekdays, noon to 5 p.m., and by special appointment. For an appointment, call Fisher at (859) 233-8142, 24 hours prior to viewing. The Parachute Factory is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 5-8 p.m. and on Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. Located in Lexington’s Northside, this women-led gallery is run by Sarah Brown and Transylvania alumna Stevie Morrison ’15. This exhibition has a catalog available

Morlan Gallery exhibition explores maps as art

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Maps have always been about art, and starting Thursday, Oct. 26, they’ll be showcased in a Morlan Gallery exhibition at Transylvania University.  “MAP/PING” will feature 12 U.S. artists who explore social mapping, culturally expanded notions of maps—and what happens when one discipline uses the language of another to consider time, place and behavior. The show will run through Dec. 5. The artists will present work in a variety of media—from embroidery, to light, to prints of personality portraits taken from online dating data. “MAP/PING” features the work of Jessica Breen, Susanna Crum, R. Luke DuBois, Luke Gnadinger, Valerie S.Goodwin, Colleen Toutant Merrill, Jenny Odell, Joyce Ogden, Jackie Pancari, Fred Tschida, Clement Valla and James Wade. The opening reception for the artists will be Friday, Oct. 27, from 5-8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The Morlan Gallery’s regular hours are noon to 5 p.m. weekdays.  For more information, contact Gallery Director Andrea Fisher at (859) 233-8142   Special Events and Hours Opening Reception with the Artists: Friday, Oct. 27, 5-8 p.m.Lexington Gallery Hop: Friday, Nov. 17, 5-8 p.m.Weekend Hours: Sunday, Nov. 12, 2-3 p.m. Evening Hours: Saturday, Nov. 18, 5-8 p.m. and Monday, Nov. 20, 5-8 p.m.

Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery to present works by renowned Southern painter

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University will present Stories to Tell: The Work of Winfred Rembert from Sept. 8 through Oct. 13 in Morlan Gallery. Rembert is known for colorful paintings on leather sheets that depict life in the rural, pre-Civil Rights South. He will visit the gallery on Sept. 8 for an opening reception along with Vivian Ducat, who directed an award-winning documentary about him. “Rembert paints stories that look back to his youth in the days of segregation,” according to Adelson Galleries, which loaned the artworks to Morlan Gallery. “Despite the often grim working conditions he encountered (not to mention a near-lynching and years spent on a prison chain gang), Rembert’s works focus on the joyous aspects of black life in the 1950s South—the strong family and community bonds, the cultural vibrancy and the many colorful characters that lifted the spirits of those who had little choice but to labor in the region’s cotton and peanut fields.” The Adelson Gallery describes the Cuthbert, Ga., painter’s works as “marked by tactile surfaces, saturated colors, and lively, rhythmic patterning.” Rembert has been compared to acclaimed African-American artists such as Hale Woodruff, Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin and Romare Bearden. “Rembert, who is self-taught, lives and works in New Haven, Conn. His paintings are represented in a number of important public and private collections, and were the subject of a major exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery in 2000.” Morlan’s Rembert exhibition will be

Transylvania senior thesis exhibition opens Friday

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s senior thesis exhibition, In Case You Missed It (or #ICYMI), will open Friday with a reception and art talks. The Morlan Gallery exhibition will feature works in a variety of media, from tennis balls to textiles. A catered reception will be from 6-7 p.m., followed by 15-minute talks by the artists about their work. The show, reception and talks are free and open to the public. Featured artists Carrie Billet, from Harlan, Ky., is a studio art major who works in textile, video and paint to create a narrative about the relationship between place and self. Henry Kramer, of Cincinnati, is a studio art major working in the traditional media of paint and the not-so-traditional media of tennis balls to investigate his personal life and what he describes as “important things in my way.” Hannah Logsdon, from Georgetown, Ky., is majoring in studio art and history. Her work is primarily ceramic, but she includes drawing, painting and metal work in her thesis exhibition. Logsdon, who explores the human form and artwork as a living being, said: “I like the physicality of artmaking; there is a tangible partnership the artist has with the work, both in the manipulation of material and the relationship to the subject.” Theodora Salazar, originally from Chicago, is a self-designed social practice art major. She has created a series of mixed media pieces exploring social and community responsibility and self reflection. The Morlan Gallery, which