The University Gallery at the Student Center is displaying a new exhibit featuring pieces that explore the use of space.
Hosted by Eastern Michigan University’s Art Department, the exhibit is titled Atmosphere: Artists’ Responses to Space(s).
It is co-curated by Professor of Photography, Jason DeMarte and Professor of Painting, Drawing and Foundations, Amy Sacksteder.
With a similar interest and theoretical approach to image making, Demarte and Sacksteder have come together to bring a show that reflects their curatorial interest.
The exhibit features 14 artists from across the country whose works are meant to create conversations around space, its use and its effect on the viewer.
“Whether it be interior or exterior, imagined or metaphysical, our goal was to stitch together continuity in understanding and exploration of these spaces,” said DeMarte.
The exhibit displays several materials such as photography, mixed media, installation, paintings, drawings and more.
Terrance Campagna, one of the featured artists in the exhibit, contributed his piece, Undocumented Relationship. Campagna made a four-week trip from Ann Arbor, Mich. to Minneapolis, Minn., where he collected materials in his fieldwork.
His piece is a selection from his “On the Surface of the Midwest” project. The collections of his findings are hung on the wall in the exhibit and it includes found paper and Styrofoam.
Danielle Rante’s Skagastrond Wish is a cyanotype and includes beeswax on paper. According to the exhibit catalog, Rante’s practice incorporates site-specific field research into geographical happenings, direct interaction with the landscape and its inhabitants and meditative mark making.
EMU Art Education major, Lori Burnham, said that this was her favorite piece in the whole exhibit. Burnham, an employee at the exhibit, helped in setting up the piece.
“It was a pain to set up because of it having like one hundred sheets of paper but I think that it was spectacular,” said Burnham.
There are also two local projects displayed in the exhibit.
Archolab, a collaborative interdisciplinary architecture research practice from Ann Arbor. Mich. and Pittsburg, Pa. contributed the project, Afterhouse.
Afterhouse Detroittransforms homes irreparably damaged by disuse and fire into semi subterranean greenhouses that use sunlight to grow crops without the use of additional energy.
The other project is Water Street. Taking place near Ypsilanti, Mich., the vacant 38-acre site after a clearing in the early 2000s of industrial structures is being used by artist Jason Wright and graphic designer Jeff Clark and community members to make public art and host gatherings.
“I think all students, regardless of major, should be able to get something out of this show,” DeMarte said. “The diversity of work and the level of intellectual engagement as well as visual excitement will be appealing to a wide audience.”
DeMarte recommends visitors to read the catalog. The catalog brings in a better understanding of the works and artists behind them.
“It’s a unique opportunity for students to see some of the exciting things happening in the art world,” DeMarte said. “It’s my hope that students learn to appreciate the different approaches through medium and craft to one central idea and how communication can be expressed through a visual language.”
The exhibit is free and will be on display until December 11.
