University Art Collections

Check out SECCA’s new exhibition curated by @themusemaya : The Threads We Follow. This group show of fiber-based artists features the work of Winston-Salem native Lakea Shepard.

Wake Forest Art Collections lent Shepard’s Acuity’s Child (2013) to the exhibition. The mask is hand-painted wax linen, made of bullet casings, gold foil, semi-precious stones, and hand-felted wool, and the bust is glazed ceramic.

Shepard’s intricate masks draw from traditional African techniques like weaving, beading, and basketry, resulting in mythical objects of protection that double as emblems of Blackness.

#wfu_uac
#wakethearts
@seccacontempart
#winstonsalem #artsnc
#wfu #wakeforest #textileartist

With October coming to a close, here’s a fun throwback to earlier this month! 📐

Two engineering classes taking “Materials and Mechanics” (EGR 211) recently studied and measured works of public art found around campus. Taught by Dr. Tricia Clayton and Dr. Carlos Kengla, students got up close and personal with three iconic installations. We love seeing different departments interacting with the Collection!

→ Robert Maki, “Timaeus Pentagon”, Cor-Ten Steel sculpture, 1981

→ Mary Alice Manning, “Swings”, wood, 1996

→ Meg Webster, “Bronze Bowl”, bronze, 1997

Drumroll please… HAPPY FOCUS FRIDAY! 🎉

The FOCUS Series features one artwork, or in this special case, two artworks per month and includes thoughtful remarks from students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Starting this month, the ongoing exhibition is being curated by our fantastic intern and art history major Georgia-Kathryn Duncan. Both pieces chosen for this month are reflective of a central topic: “Play the hand you’re dealt?”

In GK’s words, “‘Blue Club’ by Richard Diebenkorn and ‘Kismet’ by Caitlyn Margol playfully engage in the dynamics of a card game. Are these cards from the same hand in a game, or are these two cards in a face-off to decide the winner? There is a phrase that is used often when regarding equity: “Play the hand you’re dealt.” Each of these cards are a part of a game, made by rules and systems for the players. Society works in a systematic process, akin to how a card game works. These works of art make us question whether to accept the cards we are dealt, or change the play in the middle of the game.”

→ Left: Richard Diebenkorn, “Blue Club”, 1981, aquatint, spit bite, softground

→ Right: Caitlyn Margol, “Kismet”, 2019, Etching

→ To learn more about the FOCUS Series, come visit the fourth floor of Benson to see the art in person and take a digital tour of the exhibition on the @bloombergconnects app 📲

We are saddened to learn that pioneering feminist artist Ida Applebroog recently passed away at 93.

In 1993, Wake Forest students purchased her mixed media print “Promise I Won’t Die?” (1987) for the Mark H. Collection of Student-Acquired Contemporary Art.

In this work, Applebroog channeled the aesthetics of the comic strip to explore themes of violence, power, women’s sexuality, gender politics, and domestic space. In the central panel a large tree bends languidly over a blank house. Laid atop its branches are various hand-drawn portraits evocative of black and white photography. Their positioning may well be a metaphor for a family tree, suggesting connections between these individuals and the house below. Along the top register of the print, the outlines of two children are repeated like four actionless film stills. The hollowness of their repeated forms and their apparent lack of expression reinforce the impression of piercing isolation. In the right-hand panel, two ghostly figures appear as if in conflict—one dark and controlling, the other light and forcibly silenced. Though the overall meaning of these indefinite symbols remains ambiguous, Applebroog’s themes of violence, power, and domestic politics nonetheless rise to the fore. The artist has suggested that we as viewers are meant to create meaning when confronted with her works, becoming, she says, “both audience and actors” in her “uncanny theater.”

#idaapplebroog

A rainy day in the city this Family Weekend called for the perfect time to explore the art in every nook at Wake Downtown. 🏙️

First two images: Kendall Shaw, “Jambalaya Festival”, acrylic on canvas.

Third image: Julian Stanczak, “Assembly in Orange”, acrylic on canvas, 1971.