Exhibition Information

From Left: Stephen Alexander Clark Peonies, 2021 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 67 ¾ x 57 inches; Charles Heasley, Coda, 2021 Lithograph, 8 x 10 ¾ inches.

Faculty Biennial 2022
January 31 - February 25, 2022

The showcase highlights selected pieces that are executed in various materials, techniques, and visual approaches that reveal excellence in creative scholarship and educational discourse.

Featured artwork reflects not only participants' thriving individual practices but also their dedication to SUNY Cortland students through teaching and innovative applied methodology. Above all, the presentation is a testament to the faculty members' creativity and collaborative spirit in times of adversity.    

The exhibition offers the campus community and the visitors an opportunity to confront ideas in a diverse scope of disciplines, including art history, ceramics, design, drawing, fibers, painting, photography, printmaking, new media, and sculpture. Overall, the collection illustrates the advancements in personal art practices beyond the context of the institution and extends the significance to the regional contemporary art scene.

View a virtual tour of the exhibit

View photos of the exhibition

Featured artists include Martine Barnaby, Stephen Alexander Clark, Julie Crosby, Jeremiah Donovan, Sarah Gotowka, Charles Heasley, Hannah Hones, Szilvia Kadas, Jillian McEvoy, Jenn McNamara, Scott Oldfield, Jaroslava Prihodova, Vaughn Randall, Wylie Schwartz, and Bryan Valentine Thomas. 

Traditionally, the exhibition will accompany supporting in-person and virtual programs accessible to the public featuring a series of artist's talks by participating Art and Art History Department members to offer a close view into their visual practice and research. An in-person documentary screening and virtual Q&A event with the Dowd Gallery staff about curating exhibitions and preparing programs, will contribute to the supplementary content of the exhibition.

About Participants

Martine Barnaby works as a multimedia, interdisciplinary artist exploring social issues as a springboard for her projects. She has worked in various industries as a designer using her diverse background in digital arts, including digital imaging, interface design, graphic design, exhibit design, animation, video/sound editing, and installation work. 

Stephen Alexander Clark's practice revolves around painting and related media. The location has always affected Clark's work, and after moving to central New York in 2016, he has been heavily influenced by the local landscape, culture, and history. Recently, Clark's work has been exploring ideas related to trace, remains, and signs of presence.   

Julie Crosby is a full-time studio potter residing in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. She worked with stoneware clay for many years and now works primarily in earthenware, producing various functional objects and vessels.  

Jeremiah Donovan is an artist expressing his concepts and interest in earth and natural materials in clay and ceramic. Donovan's work is embedded in research about traditional pottery techniques combined with material experimentation producing sculptural vessels and objects.    

Sarah Gotowka is a visual artist concentrating in fiber arts. She is involved in an initiative to grow sustainable dyes without the interference of machines or chemical fertilizers and gives workshops on natural dyes, plants, and textile practices. 

Charles Heasley is an interdisciplinary artist who incorporates photomechanical printing processes such as collotype, photogravure, traditional and waterless lithography, as well as videography and sound into his work. 

Hannah Hones is a sculpture-based artist exploring the connections between nature and the human body.  

Szilvia Kadas teaches in the Graphic Design and Digital Media program at SUNY Cortland. Szilvia Kadas's work deals with the Anthropocene; the geological era, in which human actions have a global impact on the ecosystem.  

Jillian McEvoy specializes in ceramic arts. She produces traditional functional as well non-functional objects inspired by the natural world and constructs vessel forms charged with personal narrative.  

Jenn McNamara is primarily a fiber artist utilizing various techniques and media. Many of her three-dimensional works take the form of monumental installation in which the viewer becomes engulfed in a forest of multiple, large forms. 

Scot Oldfield is a sculptor working in mixed media, creating intuitive art forms, including sculpture and drawing. His work often expresses narratives associated with mortality, persistence, innocence, and idiosyncratic dilemma through the manipulation of physical materials.   

Jaroslava Prihodova is a visual artist, designer, and curator interested in interdisciplinary topics and collaborations. Her artistic practice revolves around issues associated with the object. 

Vaughn Randall is a sculptor working in cast iron and wood. His practice is informed by industrial design model-making, casting, and other mechanical processes such as wood pattern making for the foundry trades. 

Wylie Schwartz teaches modern and contemporary art history and theory courses at the Art and Art History department at SUNY Cortland. 

Bryan Valentine Thomas is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses installation, sculpture as well as two-dimensional work confronting socio-political topics.