Marion Art Gallery to host exhibition of Fredonia student works

Sculpture installations, illustrations and paintings created by five graduating seniors of the Department of Visual Arts and New Media will be on display in an exhibition opening Dec. 4 in the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery.

The exhibition, titled “A Work in Progress,” opens with a reception on Friday, Dec. 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery is located on the first floor of Rockefeller Arts Center.

Student artists include Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates Laura Adinolfe, Brittany Campbell, Rebecca Chatterton and Nicholas Gates, and Bachelor of Arts candidate Sarah Sperling. The artists selected the title, “A Work in Progress,” to reference the current construction and renovation project at Rockefeller Arts Center and the evolution of their own art work.

Through her paintings, Ms. Adinolfe, an Orchard Park native, addresses life’s obstacles, such as driving in traffic and efforts to break out of the box created with by anxieties. Among Adinolfe’s influences are British artist Lucian Freud who is known for his thickly painted and psychologically charged portraits and figure studies.

For her senior project, Ms. Campbell chose to illustrate diary entries of World War II soldiers. In these some times graphic drawings, she uses color selectively and symbolically. Campbell is a native of Rockaway Beach, N.Y.

Ms. Chatterton, an Oswego native, uses the ceramic medium to address the harmony – or disharmony – of man and nature and the extinction of animal species. For the senior show, Chatterton has created a mixed media installation addressing the impending extinction of the wolf.

Mr. Gates considers British painter Francis Bacon, who is known for his paintings of distorted and isolated figures, to be his central influence. Although Gates’ sculpture and installations seem non-figurative, his use of thin skins of wax over armatures symbolizes the human figure. Gates is a native of Binghamton.

Ms. Sperling is influenced by typography and Orlando-based designer Hydro 74, as well as the quirky cartoons of Far Side creator Gary Larson. For the exhibition, Sperling continues to explore her original character – a fat, yet energetic samurai. She is a native of Utica.

“A Work in Progress” is supported by the Department of Visual Arts and New Media and the Fredonia College Foundation’s Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund. The exhibition will be on display through Dec. 11.

Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. from Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 6 p.m. Friday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. For more information or a group tour of the exhibition contact gallery director Barbara Räcker at barbara.racker@fredonia.edu or 716-673-4897.