On Being: Exploring Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being Through the Creative Process

January 4th – March 9th, 2014

Curated by Julie Lohnes, Curator of Art Collections & Exhibitions

Keun Young Park, Float Face, 2012, torn and pasted photo on paper, 27 x 38 inches

As our nationwide interest in a holistic approach to well-being grows, Union College is engaging in a campus-wide call to wellness during the current academic year.  Embracing this theme, the exhibition On Being visually presents an exploration of psychological and spiritual well-being through the creative process.

Considering the individual nature of wellness and its location within the human body and mind, a plausible departure point for an artistic investigation of well-being begins with the human body and, thus, figurative artwork.  The three artists included in this exhibition, Valerie Hammond, Keun Young Park and Sheila Ross, use the body as their subject matter to represent self-actualization, spiritual exploration and reckoning with mortality.  In doing so, each artist develops a distinctive approach to image making, in an effort to convey her individual journey towards well-being and to speak universally about human experience.