The Lamar Dodd School of Art will present the S L O W Invitational Exhibition in Gallery 307 from Sept. 23 to Oct. 19. An opening reception will be held Sept. 23 at 7 p.m.
Jointly curated by faculty members Nell Andrew (art history), Jon Swindler (printmaking) and gallery director Jeffrey Whittle, the S L O W Exhibition is distinct from past invitational shows. While previous shows focused on medium and materials such as drawing or printmaking, this exhibition will have a thematic focus.
“This year we wanted artists working across different media, whose art may involve a type of craftsmanship that requires an extended amount of time,” Whittle said. “The idea behind the show is slowness, versus the ‘velocitized’ race to do more, to do it quickly and move on, that is so indicative of our culture right now.”
Six artists from across the U.S. were selected to be in the show: Brian Dettmer (book arts/sculpture), Annie Strader (sculpture, video, installation), Stefan Chinov (photography), Clare Hastans (printmaking) , Dawn Gavin (mixed media installation) and Zack Mory (drawing).
Gavin, an associate professor of art at the University of Maryland, will install her work, Tract, made up map fragments attached to insect pins configured directly upon the gallery walls. The map fragments are taken from many different sources and re-assembled to create an optical scrambling of geographical information.
“There are certainly more efficient ways to make work, but using samplings that can come from anywhere, the juxtaposition and scrambling of the fragments is a breaking down of information as well as re-constituting it,” Gavin said.