Published on 10/28/2021.
The 2021 Art Faculty & Staff Exhibition will be on display from Nov. 18, 2021 to Jan. 21, 2022. There will be a live Zoom discussion with artists on November 18 from 5:00-6:30 PM PST. Registration is required for this free public event.
Participating artists include Shannon Sullivan, Cynthia Hooper, Dean Smith, David Wilson, Ben Funke, L. L. Kessner, Mina Cohen, Mary Mallahan, Laura Meglemre and James Adam Taylor. Works on display include painting, sculpture, mixed media, digital media, watercolor, ceramic, photography, fiber arts, and video.
The 2021 Art Faculty & Staff Exhibition showcases the work of CR’s Art Department faculty and staff, with a focus on novel process and experimentation, as well as varied personal, metaphorical, and ecological themes. Exhibited artworks include updates from ongoing projects, explorations into mediums both familiar and exploratory, and works reflecting the realities of post-pandemic life.
New works include a series of experimental watercolors by Professor Shannon Sullivan, representing a departure from her traditional use of ceramics and 3D constructions. Sullivan’s new watercolor on paper works emerged after a residency at Dorland Artist Colony in 2020. The medium has proven a vital practice for Sullivan to stay engaged in artmaking during the past year.
Professor Cynthia Hooper is exhibiting a short documentary video from her forthcoming Anadromous Architectures project—an interdisciplinary project about Chinook salmon in California’s Central Valley. The project describes the fragmented river systems and concerted recovery efforts now underway for this iconic and imperiled species. Her video “Spring Run” (one of three in the project) describes one particularly endangered Chinook’s remaining habitat—including the San Joaquin River and the Sacramento Valley’s Butte Creek—from the perspective of the human populations who also live, work, and play there.
Other exhibited works include mixed media and collage work by Mina Cohen and L.L. Kessner, photography by David Wilson, and figurative drawings by Dean Smith. Over the last year, Mina Cohen revisited older work and encaustic medium to produce new pieces reflecting the state of the world and the possibility to begin anew. Photographer David Wilson has long been captivated by the beauty of darkness, and the variability of light captured under Humboldt County’s nocturnal conditions. Dean Smith's pastel works reflect the current realities of life drawing, particularly that masks must be worn by nonetheless nude figures. L.L. Kessner presents a new body of mixed media that explores ideas associated with space, biography, mythology, and other themes.
Division secretary Laura Meglemre and interim gallerist James Adam Taylor make their CR gallery debuts and instructors Ben Funke and Mary Mallahan present new two- and three-dimensional works.
Registration for the Zoom artists’ talk is available at the following link: https://redwoods-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIlcuCtrT8pGNSEGPvpv5VfLPdrhLpj95xF
The Creative Arts Gallery at College of the Redwoods is located on the Eureka Main Campus, North Entrance and is open Monday through Thursday 12 to 4 pm and by appointment. Check the website for additional gallery hours. Please note that the gallery will be closed from Dec 9, 2021 through Jan 24, 2022 for the winter academic break. For more information, please call the Art Department office at (707) 476-4559 or visit redwoods.edu/artgallery.