Faculty Biennial 20224
August 26 - October 4, 2024
Faculty Biennial 2024
August 26 – October 4, 2024
Dowd Gallery presents an exhibition of artist-selected works using various visual art techniques in conceptual, formal, and functional forms. The diverse range of studio practices offers a glimpse into the research and craft of individual faculty and staff members with SUNY Cortland's Art and Art History department.
Featured artworks explore individual practices that shape the methodology and innovation for students of contemporary studio arts. Viewers can engage with projected installations and view a range of recent expressive works in the disciplines of sculpture, ceramics, fibers, photography, printmaking, digital media, painting, and drawing.
Featured artists include Martine Barnaby, Hannah Carver, Stephen Clark, Allison DeDominick, Sierra Dell, Charles Heasley, Lorraine Heasley, Hannah Hones, Jenn McNamara, Scott Oldfield, Vaughn Randall, Wylie Schwartz, Ryan Somelofske, and
Bryan Valentine Thomas.
Exhibition Schedule
*Dowd Gallery events start at 5 pm in the main gallery for all programming. Program durations may vary depending on the topic and approximations listed in the description.
September 4
Opening Reception
Join artists in a social celebration opening the fall semester of 2024 with a scholarly,
multi-disciplinary display of creative works in visual arts. Refreshment provided.
5 pm. (approx. 2 hrs)
September 11
"Between Laboratory and Mythology: The Postwar Avant-Garde in Liguria"
The lecture focuses on art historical research conducted during the summer of 2024 investigating the nature of the artistic program and collaborative relationship between a group of international avant-garde artists who convened in the remote fishing village of Albissola on the Ligurian Coast of Italy during the1950 and 60s.
Prof. Wylie Schwartz
· Following the talk, lecturer Allison DeDominick will join Prof. Schwartz to discuss their new summer study abroad program to northern/central Italy to take place in June 2025, titled "Patrons, Princes & Painters: The Arts of Italy."
5 pm. (approx. 20 minutes)
Allison DeDominick has over a decade of teaching experience, beginning at SUNY Cortland, and now also teaches at Ithaca College. Her courses have primarily focused on the ancient Mediterranean, the Italian Renaissance, and the history of graphic design, reflecting her academic and professional background. Allison completed her undergraduate degree at Alfred University, where she spent two semesters studying in Italy, fostering a deep connection to Italian art and culture. Because her study abroad experience was so impactful, she co-designed a summer study abroad course through SUNY Cortland and the University of Verona, which is open to students across multiple universities. In addition to teaching, Allison works in graphic and web design for CIHF at Cornell University. Her work in design enriches her teaching, allowing her to share practical insights with students who may pursue similar careers. She is also deeply committed to supporting local art and community initiatives, serving as President of the Board of Directors for the Ithaca Festival (2023-present) and curating and managing the Art Barn at the GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance (2014-present).
Wylie Schwartz is an Assistant Professor in the art and art history department at the State University of New York at Cortland, specializing in modern and contemporary art history and critical theory. Her research interests include artist collectives and experimental pedagogy (1955-1970), the history of art education, and collaborative and socially engaged art and its theoretical contexts. She received her MA in European Art History at the University of East Anglia School of World Art Studies ('07) and her doctorate in Art and Architectural History at Binghamton University ('21). Her doctoral dissertation, titled, "Experimental Pedagogies: The Art and Politics of the Scandinavian Neo-Avant-Garde (1961-1972)," is concerned with the role of pedagogy in art practice and raises a general set of questions about the nature of artistic experimentation and the creative process.
Artist Talks with Sierra Dell and Hannah Hones
Emerging artists will lecture and walk through the work on the exhibit.
5:30 pm (approx. 30 minutes)
Hannah Hones (sculpture)
Hannah's current body of work explores the intersections between people and the nature that surrounds us. She pursues this topic through the use of the human figure, handwork, and foraged local plants. The main processes to achieve this are casting iron, hand-built ceramics, and sewn or spun fibers. The materials used with these processes help convey the concept of the work and play an integral part of the form itself. This body of work inspires viewers to observe the world they inhabit closely.
Sierra Dell (Fibers)
Sierra is intrinsically drawn toward working with vintage objects that have held a sense of time. Being raised by elderly relatives was influential in her appreciation and interest in antique items and articles. Thus, nostalgia and memories of the past are repeated themes integrated within her work.
"I am unraveling" speaks to my journey with loss and grief, a universal human experience that often goes unspoken. This causes unhealthy behavior, such as avoiding feelings of pain and burying unprocessed emotions. The burden of suffering in silence is something I have carried within the medium of hand embroidery. The practice of slow stitching is meditative and an integral part of confronting my sorrow and grief in the process. Navigating grief in this way has allowed me to be vulnerable in opening a dialogue with the viewer about losing a loved one and the sadness that follows."
– Sierra Dell
September 12
Workshop "Everything You Wanted To Know About Pants Fitting But Were Afraid to Ask"
Martine Barnaby and Ruth Collins will host a "Everything You Wanted To Know About Pants Fitting But Were Afraid To Ask" introductory workshop for making your own pants based on Collins' upcoming book, Body-Neutral Fitting: Pants, which Barnaby designed and illustrated. They will cover topics of concept development, book design, illustration, and Collins' groundbreaking approach which provides a fitting framework that delivers for every design of pants, every size and shape of body, every fabric choice, showcasing the power of good design to support inclusivity and function.
The Event is Being hosted by Professor Jenn McNamara in the fibers studio Rm 101.
Martine Barnaby (artist/designer)
Martine Barnaby is a multimedia artist whose work explores various dimensions of
narrative structures. Professionally trained in animation and digital arts, she has been a professor in the Art and Art History department at the State University of New York at Cortland since 2000. She owns Barnaby Creative, an imaginative studio specializing in design, multimedia, and unique collaborative projects. She is inspired by mentoring students, sharing her enthusiasm for design, working with creatives, and facilitating her client's visions. She strives to connect with clients and other artists who share a desire to make the world a more positive, inclusive, and diverse place.
Ruth Collins
Ruth Collins is a scientist who became interested in exploring the similarities between clothing design and biological structures. In both cases, the challenge lies in transitioning from two-dimensional (2D) materials to three-dimensional (3D) structures, from flat cloth and lipid bilayers into wearable design and cellular shapes. This investigation evolved into a practical and inclusive method for fitting pants that accommodates all body types and gender identities. Ruth lives in the Finger Lakes region of NY, when not thinking about scientific problems she likes to spend time with friends and family. You can find more about Ruth on her IG account@ithacamaven
5 pm (approx. 2 hrs)
September 18
Artist Talks with Ryan Somelofske
Artist lecture and walk-through of "Looking for the Wind" on exhibit in the Faculty Biennial 2024
Looking for the Wind June 2, 2023
(2024) Continuous Video Loop, Cinder blocks, ground acrylic sheet
Wind is one of the most powerful and life-altering forces on Earth. The daily, uneven heating and cooling of air causes rushing and swirling winds to cause nearly all meteorological phenomena. We can feel the wind, sense the changing pressure brought by winds, and hear roaring winter winds. But, the wind evades direct visual observation, only revealing itself by moving that which it passes near.
In an attempt to find a visuality unique to wind I use video filters to abstract trees blowing in a warm summer breeze to focus all attention on the motion caused by the wind. Projecting onto ground acrylic resolves an image reminiscent of a viscous marble pattern, and projecting through the acrylic renders a barely decipherable ghostly image that subtly bobs and glistens.
-Ryan Somelofske
5:00 pm (approx. 30 min)
Panel Discussion: "Craft and technology in the contemporary studio."
Sit at the artist's table and listen to a conversation between a sculptor, painter, and print media specialist as they discuss views on the relationship between craft and the technological evolution of visual arts. Each panel member represents disciplines in personal practice involving specialized processes in visual arts. How is craft defined in contemporary studio arts? How does technological innovation and process affect the legacy of the Hand-made? Our panel members discuss opinions based on personal experience and practice in open-air conversation.
Panel members:
Vaughn Randall
Currently a professor of sculpture at the State University of New York in Cortland, NY. He received his MFA in sculpture from the University of Washington in Seattle and his BFA in sculpture from Georgia State University. He was instrumental in the development of the Sloss Furnaces Metal Arts program in Birmingham, Alabama, and served as the Co-Director of the 8th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art. He has been an active member of the cast-iron art community for over 30 years. Randall has an extensive background in industrial and artistic foundry processes and is trained as a model maker and a master wood patternmaker. His work has been exhibited extensively and is in the collection of the John Michael Kohler Art Center, the University of Alabama in Birmingham, SUNY Cortland, the US National Park Service, The City of Clarksville TN, The Chinese Cultural Council, Jingdezhen, China, as well as many private collections.
"The influence of my vocational training in industrial techniques and processes established a visual language that has consistently manifested in the forms and concepts of my sculptures. While brackets, gussets, fillets, bosses, and similar machine-like elements pervade my work, they are not engineered for functional purposes. Instead, I employ the visual language of machines purely for conceptual expression.
What captivates me is the innate creativity of humanity—the remarkable capacity to conceive and fabricate tools, machines, and intricate systems."
-Vaughn Randall
Stephen Clark
Stephen earned his MFA in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art, LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, and his BFA from Calvin University. He has exhibited nationally, including at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in NYC, 106 Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI, and the Chicken Box Gallery in Baltimore, MD. Stephen lives and works in rural central New York State with his wife and three children. He is the Associate Professor of Painting at SUNY Cortland. When not in the studio, he is usually splitting firewood for the winter.
"Using images of rural Upstate New York, I specially center the subject of the paintings on the local environs to speak of absence and presence, time and change, as well as function as a means for finding my own place within the local landscape. In the paintings, there is an intentional push/pull of the figure-ground relationship that inhabits each work, operating as a direct visual correlation for the idea that the past and present affect each other and communicates a non-linear reading of time and place."
-Stephen Alexander Clark
Charles Heasley (print media specialist)
Heasley graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico, in printmaking with a concentration in lithography. He received both a Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts from Western Michigan University in printmaking and multimedia. Awarded a postgraduate curatorial fellowship certificate from the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in 1980, he arrived at Cortland in 1981.
The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in prints and artist's books in 1984, Heasley has also received research grants from the SUNY Research Foundation and the Faculty Research Program supporting investigations into print/photographic technologies. He has given workshops in photomechanical printing processes including collotype, photogravure, and waterless lithography at West Virginia University, Syracuse University, Northern Illinois, and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and was an invited artist presenter for the Drake National Print Symposium in 1997. His printed works are in public and private collections in Europe, the Orient, and throughout the United States. Recently, he displayed at the national gallery of King St Stephens in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, following an invitation to participate in the 1st Hungarian/American collaborative symposium for artist books in Mor, Hungary.
5:45 pm. (approx. 45 min.)
October 2
"Unscripted."
Open dialogue walk-through with artists. Jenn McNamara (Fiber Artist), Bryan Valentine Thomas, and Scott Oldfield. Artists will lead a discussion about works on view evoked by viewer's interests and impromptu reactions to specific artworks. Participants are encouraged.
Jenn McNamara (fibers/installation)
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids its break.
William Shakespeare
I lost my father when I was 48 due to complications resulting from Agent Orange1 exposure while serving two tours in Vietnam. At that time, I had just had a cervical fusion, resulting in a large scar on the front of my neck. This scar became a symbol of loss. It looked as angry as I felt, and for some time, I could not look at it without remembering my father in hospice while I cared for him. The scar has healed, but the loss has not.
48-49 is a self-portrait diptych exploring loss. Woven metal and fishing line encapsulate cheesecloth dyed to resemble the visceral feeling of grief. A metal grid is created, suggesting the order expected by society and the need to be "okay" and function normally while grieving a significant loss. Metal and fishing line extend from the weaving, implying the messiness one can feel while dealing with complicated feelings. In the second weaving, the cheesecloth is gone; the dense feelings are removed with moments of red describing the grief that remains. A thread of silver monofilament provides hope and healing before the extended warp pooling on the floor, an overflowing emotion that will likely stay for the rest of my life.
-Jenn McNamara
Scott Oldfield (drawing)
Oldfield creates visual works in two-dimensional and three-dimensional form, which invokes viewers to initiate personal dialog in quest for a definitive plot. His work often expresses narratives associated with mortality, persistence, innocence, and idiosyncratic dilemmas through manipulating physical materials.
"I love to tell stories. My preference to use objects and imagery over text and voice permits ambiguity and imagination to influence the inductive scene presented." -Scott Oldfield
Bryan Valentine Thomas (sculpture)
Works on exhibition explore a delicate interplay between youth and adulthood, contrasting plastic toys with intricate lace and shields. This juxtaposition highlights the tension between naiveté and responsibility, with delicate patterns on sturdy substrates reflecting our attempts to shield ourselves from life's harsh realities. These barriers, though methodically crafted, often feel futile, revealing our underlying vulnerability. Experimenting with new materials, particularly acrylic, to convey the material's inherent symbolism. The transparency was used to challenge notions of protection versus exposure. Each piece invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences with barriers, encouraging a deeper understanding of the complex layers of our human condition.
5 pm (approx. 60 min)
Other artists Featured in the exhibition
Hannah Carver
Adjunct Lecturer, Ceramicist
“I am a craftsperson. I make vessels to be used – to hold, serve, pour, and enclose – but never simply to adorn. Although one may enjoy the look of a vessel, its most compelling feature is typically the fact that it functions properly. Often in my work, I have wondered why a beautiful object used in everyday domestic scenes holds less artistic value than an object whose only function is simply to be attractive. With this series, I explore the interplay between functionality and frivolity. "
-Hanna Graeper Carver
Lorraine Heasley
Adjunct Lecturer, Graphic Designer
Attending one of the very last workshops at Wells Book Arts Center's Summer Institute, Lorrain enrolled to reconnect with friends, meet new people, and learn something new about marbling paper. The Summer Institute brought instructors, artists, and participants from across the country to learn with renowned book artists, printers, calligraphers, and paper artists in week-long workshops. Her work in the exhibition showcases patterns in collaged marbled papers. She additionally showcases her bookmaking skills with a tunnel book created during the Life Beyond the Single Sheet workshop in paper marbling and bookmaking with Philadelphia-based book artist Leslie Grossman.
October 4
Faculty Biennial Exhibition Closes
