“The exhibitions this fall offer a rich visual experience from abstraction to representation with a deep dive into the fine art printmaking process in Twenty Years of Marais Press and a look into the merging of Eastern and Western creative processes in the work of Master Shen Long.”
— Museum Director LouAnne Greenwald
Exhibitions are on display now and will run through August 2022.
Twenty Years of Marais Press: Imprinting a Campus and a Collection
Exhibition Dates: September 10, 2021 – August 20, 2022
Featuring art donated to the Hilliard Art Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition is the result of over 260 collaborations between students and artists in the Marais Press service learning program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Department of Visual Arts. Over the last 20 years, professor, artist, and master printmaker Brian Kelly has invited artists to create fine art print editions of their work in collaboration with his students. In this environment, students are exposed to the creative processes of established artists. They also have the opportunity to advance their knowledge of highly technical printmaking processes like aquatint, Chine-collé, drypoint, engraving, etching, lithography, and others.
The Hilliard Art Museum has benefited from the Marais Press’s collegial nature in the form of hundreds of donations of fine art prints to its permanent collection. This generosity, as well as the press’s educational mission, is the guiding principle for this exhibition. The Hilliard’s relationship with the printmaking community has grown as a result of Twenty Years of Marais Press. For example, the museum staff has worked with current students and alumni on many facets of this exhibition and introduced them to aspects of museology, including research, exhibition design, framing and mounting, copy editing, and more. This collaborative and mentoring approach mirrors that of the Marais Press, helping to prepare students for a career in the arts.
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Sanctuary: New Works by Linda Alterwitz
Exhibition Dates: June 11, 2021 – February 11, 2022
The concept of sanctuary, though often idealized, is rarely acknowledged as fleeting and subjective. Sanctuary: New Works by Linda Alterwitz explores notions of refuge with an interdisciplinary approach and great psychological depth. Replete with photographs featuring landscape and architectural imagery, brain scans printed on gauze, simulated wind, and a musical score composed by Christian Tamburr, Alterwitz’s installation feels like embarking on a journey inside one’s own mind. From moment to moment, the rhythmic flapping of gauze and gentle driving melody of Tamburr’s score serve as reminders that psychological states are temporary, constantly ebbing and flowing depending on external stimuli. This experiential installation reminds the viewer that change is required for personal growth, and that exploring one’s vulnerability is necessary for healing. Ask yourself: What do I need to feel safe and grow?
Alterwitz’s photographs feature mysterious landscapes and blurry, abstracted images of homes. When paired within an exhibition, these types of images imply the push and pull within each person’s internal and public life. In the context of this exhibition, they also serve as potential locations of refuge or conflict; it is hard to separate the two. Take for example the nylon sutures adhering the brain scans (electroencephalograms) to Alterwitz’s photographs. The scans are visual representations of individuals’ brain activity while they are distressed. Affixing the scans to images with sutures simultaneously implies healing as well as trauma. While the two are inextricably bound to one another, there is great optimism in Alterwitz’s drive to create a space of safety and healing within her exhibition. Her continued dialog with medical professionals, including work with internal medical residents and graduate nursing students at the Mayo Clinic, underscores her commitment to helping others find peace.
Alterwitz earned her MFA from the University of Denver in 1984. Dozens of institutions have exhibited her work, including the New Mexico Museum of Art, Missoula Art Museum, Center for Creative Photography, New Orleans Photo Alliance, and the Yixian Photography Festival in Yixian, China. Notably, she was awarded the Fellowship for Visual Arts by the Nevada Arts Council in 2015. That same year she served as artist-in-residence at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Selected publications that have discussed her creative practice include the Smithsonian Magazine, Diffusion Magazine, Orion Magazine and Musée Magazine.
Universe of the Mind: Master Shen-Long
Exhibition Dates: July 20, 2021 – January 22, 2022
Master Shen-Long is a multidisciplinary artist who is a contemporary master of classical Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy, and seal carving. He merges these genres with contemporary art-making practices to create new interpretations of traditional culture. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Jacqueline Chao, Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Crow Museum of Asian Art of the University of Texas at Dallas.
Khara Woods: Axis
Exhibition Dates: July 24, 2021 — December 18, 2021
Khara Woods uses materials, pattern, and abstraction to great effect in her studio practice. Her gridded hard-edge compositions incorporate warm wood grain with a bold, personable palette of saturated colors. The intensity of the color and tightly packed lines in this exhibition create a visual effect in each work of art, whereby the bold colors and uniform patterns may cause a patient viewer to perceive vibrations and pulses across the face of each painting. This is a result of the color and light receptors in their eyes confusing the two sensations with each other. This physiological phenomenon enables various patterns within patterns to emerge, illustrating a surprising amount of depth in seemingly flat compositional spaces.
During the pandemic, Woods began researching her family history and learned that she comes from a line of artists and craftspeople. Her mother, N.J. Woods, is a renowned African-American, Memphis-based artist whose father, Yancy Richmond, piqued her interest in art as a child with his love of painting winter landscapes. Richmond was also a lumberer at E.L. Bruce Company, and in turn, his father was a carpenter who helped shape the built environment of Byhalia, Mississippi, outside of Memphis, Tennessee. It seems only natural that Woods is interested in painting and incorporates raw wood grain into her practice; it represents the depth of connection she has to her creative and ancestral lineage. Of equal importance is how she presents her work in grids and patterns that can be interpreted as cyclical and repeating. Toward this end, her visually dynamic use of grids is a nod towards analytical charts and family trees.
Woods is a rising star in Memphis. Since 2017, she has completed four public murals with the most recent being funded by the Urban Art Commission and Mural Arts Philadelphia. She is also the 2021 New Public Sculptors Fellow for the Urban Art Commission in Memphis. Her recent exhibitions include Young, Gifted, and Dope at Marshall Arts and a solo exhibition at Beverly + Sam Ross Gallery titled Inside-Out.
Museum Hours, Admission & General Information
The Hilliard Art Museum is located at 710 E. Saint Mary Blvd. on the campus of University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Museum hours are: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Wednesday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday. General admission is $7.50 for adults, $6 for seniors (62+), $4.50 for students (5-17), and FREE for members, UL students/staff/faculty with identification, and visitors under 5. For general information, please visit HillliardMuseum.org or call 337-482-2278.
About the Hilliard Art Museum
The Hilliard Art Museum operates on the campus of University of Louisiana at Lafayette and was originally founded in 1964 as the Art Center for Southwestern Louisiana. Featuring a state-of-the-art modern facility that was erected in 2004, the museum houses more than 2,200 objects in its permanent collection. The Hilliard serves a wide range of educational and cultural needs by fostering cross-disciplinary intellectual discourse on campus and throughout the region. At the core of the Hilliard's mission is to enhance the education of University of Louisiana at Lafayette students and inspire creativity through engagement with the arts for the Acadiana region.
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