An opening reception for the artists will take place at the gallery from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. TONIGHT, Thursday, Feb. 21, The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
This year’s exhibit features the work of Jon Brookhouse, Colleen Carroll, Cynthia Coté, Phyllis Fredendall, Robert Grame, Kenyon Hansen, Josh Jaehnig, Harriet King, Joyce Koskenmaki, Erica Lord, Rick Loduha, and Carrice Chardin McKinstry. Media include ceramics, interdisciplinary sustainable design, collage and assemblage, fiber art, graphic design, painting and drawing, and interactive media.
"This diverse group of teachers has so much to offer young artists," notes gallery director Carrie Flaspohler. "Finlandia students are learning from professional artists, some of whom have practiced their art for over 30 years, some who have recently completed graduate school and are actively pursuing gallery representation."
Professor of fiber and fashion design Phyllis Fredendall, who recently presented a solo retrospective of her work at Finlandia’s Reflection Gallery, has created new work for the faculty exhibit. In her current work, Fredendall explores memory.
"My work explores the slipperiness of memory, paying homage to family elders in wool and silk through the process of hand felting," says Fredendall.
Associate professor of graphic design Robert Grame, who joined the art and design faculty in August 2011, has been redesigning the curriculum of the graphic design concentration. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally -- in China, Korea, Austria, and Germany.
"I believe strongly in the social and ethical responsibility of design," Grame writes in his artist's statement. "My experimental / expressionistic efforts are focused upon creating statements regarding typography, rhetoric, and elevating the role of design. Personal experimentation has the innate ability for me to feed a network of ideas and aspects that I work with in my professional activities, making my industry efforts much stronger and more deeply informed."
Associate professor of integrated design Rick Loduha will exhibit work from throughout his design career.
Loduha believes that the design challenge of the future will be to find holistic well-being that is less hierarchical, less individualistic and materialistic, and less wasteful, and by virtue of all these, less self-destructive.
"Our next challenge as a culture is the mindful remediation of what we have despoiled," Loduha says.
Emeritus professor of ceramics Jon Brookhouse will display ceramic pieces created in his studio in Tapiola, Mich.
Emeritus professor of art Joyce Koskenmaki has returned to Finlandia this year to work with the university’s painting and drawing students. In her recent work, Koskenmaki has moved away from creating art that expresses concrete ideas and has begun to work more intuitively.
"Working in abstraction allows me to express what can’t be put into words," Koskenmaki says. "It allows me to deepen my expression and to access feelings and inner states which may have been hidden from my consciousness. I think turning back to abstraction has come with getting older, needing to get past ideas and into just being."
Adjunct instructor Cynthia Coté, also the executive director of the Copper Country Community Art Center, Hancock, teaches a class in art business at Finlandia. Coté will display a mixed media collage and assemblage.
"My work is about saving, remembering, and letting go," notes Coté. "Caught in the transitory nature of life, I am eternally processing the past, doing my best to honor the present and wondering about the future. All of the work that I do involves repetition and introspection. It is quiet when I work and the work is quiet. Selecting, sorting and folding paper, collecting words, gluing, and tying knots -- the repetition in each step is important. All the while, I am interpreting the circumstances of my life."
International School of Art and Design alumnus Kenyon Hansen has returned to Finlandia to teach ceramic design. Hansen, who completed his B.F.A. at Finlandia in 2005, served as a long term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Mont., and as a studio assistant at the Penland (North Carolina) School of Crafts.
A recent addition to Finlandia’s faculty, adjunct instructor Carrice Chardin McKinstry ('08), will exhibit work from her installation, "In the Crucible of the Mind: Eye for an I for an Eye," an interactive installation of which the viewer is an integral part.
"I work intuitively to set up dramatic installations using light and space, involving a sculptural vocabulary that welcomes debate," explains McKinstry. "Each viewer’s history and perspective are integral elements in the interpretation of my work."
Adjunct instructors Colleen Carroll ('09), Josh Jaehnig ('11), Harriet King, and Erica Lord will also display their work.
The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., or by appointment. Please call 906-487-7500 for more information.
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