What informs a work of art? How does a writer choose words for a poem? How does a painter choose color and form? Decisions are made because of time and place, and how the artist reacts to that context. The chance meeting over ten years ago between poet Jim McCord and painter Bruce McColl at the Vermont Studio Center started a relationship that would influence both the form and content of their art.
This year there is a selection of the best work of students from all of the visual arts classes offered at Union including photography, painting, drawing, video, sculpture and printmaking. Come and see the great work these students have done!
The premise of this exhibition is that photography is a particularly potent tool in objectifying what is in its lens, and that over time, from the colonial period to the contemporary period, the photograph in Africa has changed from initially being an instrument of the European colonist — to the later studio “dream factories” in the cities — to the rich and complex work African photographers today.
The vibrancy of the Visual Arts Faculty at Union College is palpable, and is due at least in part to their differences. These artists differ in their techniques, narratives and even philosophies. Chris Duncan’s steel and wood sculptures express a vigorous push-pull between the linear and the organic, the cerebral and the visceral, but ultimately elicit permanence.