Visceglia Art Gallery Will Present “Fields of Vision 2017: Caldwell Art Department Faculty Exhibition”

Caldwell, N.J., January 31, 2017 – The Visceglia Art Gallery at Caldwell University will present a faculty exhibition featuring a broad range of contemporary art practice and highlighting the diversity of the art faculty. The exhibition will be held from Feb. 9 to March 8 and is free and open to the public.

Almost every seven years, the gallery presents an exhibition of current work by the faculty of the Caldwell University Art Department who teach and actively pursue their own art and have shown their work nationally and internationally.

A reception honoring the seven artists will be held in the Gallery on Wednesday Feb. 22 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.  It is also free and open to the public. The snow date is Wednesday March 1 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Caldwell University’s Art Department strives to provide a compelling and rigorous environment for aesthetic and critical exploration. The department encourages innovation. Students in its multiple majors of Fine Art, Graphic Design, Art Education and Art Therapy are directed to utilize the academic resources of the university to inform and deepen their artistic goals. Whether in the school’s studios or pursuing their independent creative work, the art faculty is committed to the belief that creative development in the visual arts provides some of the most longstanding contributions to the immediate community and to the culture as a whole.

The artwork of faculty members, Bonnie Berkowitz, Judith Croce, Emilee Lord, Maya Manvi, Heidi Sandecki, Larry Szycher and Kendall Baker (Gallery Director) will be on display. The Visceglia exhibition galleries, which are currently being upgraded with new lighting, will showcase paintings, drawings, works on paper, sculpture, photographs, puppetry, and video-based work.

“Puppetry Theater must involve all of the art forms, design, drawing, painting, sculpture, music, writing and movement,” states Bonnie Berkowitz, who teaches in the Art Therapy graduate program.   Photographs of her recent performances show how “core elements collide to create a stew of objects, costume, story, and experimental puppets in a kinetic choreography of color and texture.”

A new body of work by Judith Croce, who teaches painting, drawing, 2-d design and color theory, is titled, ‘Pinups’.  She explains that she uses ephemeral materials to form “a continuation of my language of formal geometric abstraction as they emerge out of their interactions with the temporary spaces and places they are attached to.”

Emilee Lord teaches drawing and uses graphic inventions to explore, as she states, “houses and details of architecture being containers for the memory of the self and journey of this self.”  Her work questions, “the mapping of the places we live in as extensions of identity—an identity we constantly work to construct and dismantle.”

Maya Manvi, who teaches sculpture and 3-dimensional design states that her multi-media work in sculpture and video is about survival and that doing so requires that we “modify the conditions of a system (the confines of language, the traditions of objects) to get at the messy generosity of things.”

Heidi Sandecki, who teaches graphic design, uses chance to identify and manipulate abstract plant-based forms and glyphs in a series of watercolor works that blur the figure-ground relationship and “present a different view for aesthetic contemplation of ordinary yet subliminal symbols.”

Larry Szycher, who teaches painting, drawing and digital art, explores the way his canvasses “reconcile the texture, spontaneity, substance and reality of the materials with their subjective connotations. They strive to remain as ‘paint’ as well as illusion, and use the material’s innate ability to effect the realization of my personal vision.”

Kendall Baker, who directs the Visceglia Gallery and teaches sculpture, 3d-design and photography, uses outdoor installations, ceramics and photography of natural forms to explore ‘mark-making’ as systems of measurement.  “Deeply imbedded markings are identifying signs that invite us to draw closer to natural elements because we recognize them as an extension of ourselves.”

The gallery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For directions visit: https://www.caldwell.edu/gallery/visceglia-gallery-directions-map