Ethnographic Exhibits

Professor of Art History, Dr Arthur Bourgeois, recently updated the display cases in the E-Lounge just outside the Visual Arts Gallery. The three cases now contain small exhibits of artifacts from the Akon People of Ghana, the Ibo People of Southern Nigeria, and the prehispanic, Chimu Empire of Peru.

The E-Lounge also houses a semi-permanent display of Papua New Guinean artifacts, including an impressive pair of heavily decorated house posts from the Iatmul People. These selections from GSU's ethnographic collection are always available for public viewing during campus hours.

2009 Regional Art Faculty Invitational

Once again, the Visual Arts Gallery is hosting an exhibit of work by local and regional college and university art instructors.

Faculty from the College of DuPage, Governors State University, The Illinois Institute of Art, Joliet Junior College, Kankakee Community College, Lewis University, Moraine Valley Community College, Morton College, Olivet Nazarene University, Prairie State College, Saint Xavier University, South Suburban College, Trinity College, Triton College and the University of Saint Francis have been invited to participate.

This exhibit will be open for viewing from September 7-28 with a reception on Friday, September 11th from 6-9 p.m.

Undergraduate Exhibit

The Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University is happy to present a group exhibition of three graduating students from July 27 - August 17. There will be a public reception on the evening of Friday, July 31, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. This exhibit will features a presentation of the final, senior projects of mixed media artists, Jennifer Lesch-Benedick, Rhiannon Sallas and Kristina Schmitt.

Our House (Divided)

On Sunday, August 16 the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park will host a special event juxtaposing music, commentary, and art to offer alternative interpretative experiences to works in the park.

"Our House (Divided)” is a multi-facetted program, which will touch on history, memory, division, and change, and promises to be both moving and uplifting. It includes music performed by Red Riding Hood, a string quartet comprised of Erica Lessie on cello, Jennifer Lowe and Elise Dalleska on violin, and Nora Williams on viola.

In the presence of Bruce Nauman's House Divided singer, Marshall Titus, will perform vocal selections accompanied by Red Riding Hood, and recite Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 “House Divided” speech, one of the inspirations for Nauman's sculpture.

Magda Brown, a survivor of the Birkenau concentration camp, will provide commentary on her experiences during World War II and subsequent life in the United States.

More information on this unique event can be found on the sculpture park's website.

Joyce Speechley - Eternal Spaces

Governors State University graduate student, Joyce Speechley will present "Eternal Spaces: Studies in Movement and Value," an exhibition of her recent "fumage" drawings in GSU's Gallery 1516 from August 1 through August 11, with an artist's closing reception on August 11th from 6-9 p.m.

Speechley's drawings incorporate graphite, graphite powder, and fumage, a technique created by the artist employing flame and smoke on canvas. Her work focuses on the correlation of atmospheric moisture and the changing light of day within a landscape, incorporating the reflections of diffused sunlight from the surrounding environment. Speechley's drawings place the viewer within the landscape, allowing them to become one with nature and experience a moment of complete silence and solitude.

Born on the west side of Chicago, Speechley found her passion for the arts early in life. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Northern Illinois University and is currently pursuing a Masters of Art at Governors State University. She has received numerous awards and has published books for PCI Publishing in San Antonio Texas, and Schaffer Publishing in Torrance California. Speechley shares her passion for the arts by teaching at the College of DuPage in DuPage county Illinois, where she resides with her three teenagers.

Elizabeth Farnesi - Sinful Serenity

Sinful Serenity, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Elizabeth Farnesi, will be on display from July 13th to July 23rd in the Visual Arts Gallery. An artist's opening reception will be held on Tuesday, July 14th, from 6 to 9 p.m., in the gallery.

Farnesi’s Catholic upbringing made her particularly aware of the presence of the Seven Deadly Sins in life. Although it wasn’t until she personally experienced the sins first hand that she began to look for prime examples of vanity, lust, greed, anger, envy, sloth, and gluttony in everyday life. The constant bombardment of media, pop culture, high end fashion and corrupt role models numbs the public to the sins. Each sin intertwined into one another has seemingly become mainstream, accepted, and forgotten.

Farnesi’s images are a look at human behavior and how she believes an over indulgence of one sin can lead to another sin which, in turn, can result in the destruction of one’s self. This series of work is her journey and exploration into the sins and it’s through her eyes in which the sins are rendered.

Wholly Sheeets - Michael Costanza

Wholly Sheets, an exhibition of the mixed media collages and photography of Michael Costanza, will be on display in the Visual Arts Gallery from June 27 through July 9, 2009. An opening reception will be held on June 27 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The everyday experience produces a physical pile of papers and materials which Costanza uses when creating his work. Gluing layers of receipts, envelopes, classified ads, etc. on found wood and windows directly relates to the idea of the everyday experience told in piles. In addition to this collage work, Costanza also captures the everyday with photographic documents. These photos are used as source material informing the direction of his collage work. Employing techniques such as collage, décollage, digital painting/transfer printing, photography, lithography, drawing and painting, Costanza is constantly shifting the act of creating to match events and influences of any particular day.

Wholly Sheeets is an interpretation of the world seen as entirely comprised of layers. Balance, both in composition and concept, is the unifying thread throughout the body of work. Costanza creates worlds where the many layers of clatter produced by people flow in unison with nature.

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