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    Wesleyan unveils new local art exhibit

    Photo+by+Hannah+Lathen
    Photo by Hannah Lathen

    Texas Wesleyan students now only have to cross the street to experience art in the four exhibitions on display in the Bernice Coulter Templeton Art Studio gallery over the fall and spring semesters.

    The gallery’s first exhibition, Dual, which runs through Oct. 4, features husband and wife duo, sculptor Angel Fernandez and painter Winter Rusiloski. Fernandez, a Texas Wesleyan alumnus, lost both of his parents to cancer, his father just this year, which art professor Kit Hall said is reflected in his recent work.

    “If you look at these pieces of sculpture in that manner, you can begin to see almost scientifically, cells and mutations of cells that might be reflective of the mutation of cancer cells,” Hall said. “That is little bit of a diversion from what he usually does, so this is I think kind of a new thing.”

    Dr. Mark Hanshaw, dean of School of Arts & Letters, said he is an acquaintance of Fernandez.

    “Because of that personal relationship, being truthful, I am very excited for him and for us in being able to bring his work and some of his wife’s work onto our campus,” Hanshaw said.

    Rusiloski’s work is influenced by landscapes, Hall said, and incorporates memories and feelings from her travels.

    “You see some reference to some realism,” Hall said. “It is all very expressionistic and an emotional reaction to landscape as opposed to a literal translation of it.”

    The couple has one collaborative piece in the show, titled “Dual”.

    “She, being the painter of the two, had an old canvas of one of her paintings and took it off the stretcher and allowed him to cut it up and make a pattern out of it,” Hall said. “Then he added some spikes which is kind of a trademark of his at this point in time.”

    Michael Wolfe, senior mass communication major, viewed the gallery and said he found the couple’s work beautiful and refreshing.

    “It gave me a first taste of local art,” Wolfe said.

    Jamus Hernandez, junior business administration and finance major, wrote in an email the first exhibit he had ever visited.

    “It definitely peaked my interest because the paintings were very good and done in an abstract way that made your mind wander and think of all the possibilities the paintings could be,” Hernandez wrote.

    A reception for Fernandez and Rusiloski’s work will be 2-4 p.m. Sept. 16.  

    The next show in the gallery is Animus featuring Juan Cruz and his friend Genevieve Armstrong, and curated by Thomas Motley. The show runs Oct. 16-Dec. 5, with a reception 2-4 p.m. Oct. 21.

    “They are kind of young artists who are beginning their career in art,” Hall said. “One of them is an MFA student up at North Texas and his name is Juan Cruz and his friend Genevieve Armstrong.”

    Armstrong is interpreting through her portraits, Hall said, what is like to be a woman in her late 20s.

    Hall said Cruz’s portraits feature victims of a group of university students who were murdered on a trip to Mexico by a drug cartel around five years ago.

    “It is more of cultural interpretation of portraiture where hers is more of an internal interpretation of it,” Hall said. “That should be very interesting.”

    This first exhibition of the spring 2018 semester is Fluid Dialog featuring Motley and Liz Trosper. The exhibition runs Jan. 16-March 1 with a reception 2-4 p.m. Feb. 3.

    Motley and Trosper are established artists, Hall said, who have been having an artistic conversation over the past few years where they send each other pictures of their work and the other responds.

    “They have had this silent conversation going on for a while, so they are going to present that conversation in the artwork,” Hall said.

    The last exhibition of year will feature artwork from students, faculty and staff March 3-May 8 in what Hall said will be a celebration of art with a reception to be announced later.

    “It is the Art Bash and it is something that I hope will become a tradition at Wesleyan,” Hall said.

    Getting people to view and appreciate art, Hall said, is one of the main goals of the gallery this semester.

    “It has been a long time since we have had the opportunity as a faculty as well as students,” she said. “The enjoyment of the visual arts has kind of evolved out of us and I am hoping that this will bring it back in some way.”

    The Bernice Coulter Templeton Art Studio gallery is in located at 1415 E. Vaughan St. and is open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Thur. Admission to the gallery is free. For more information about the exhibits, go to txwes.edu/art-gallery.

    Photo by Hannah Lathen
    Photo by Hannah Lathen
    Photo by Hannah Lathen

     

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    Wesleyan unveils new local art exhibit