Alabama Center for the Arts Presents Photography Exhibition

For Further Information

Guy McClure

256-233-8296

Guy.McClure@athens.edu

For immediate release
June 26, 2014
www.athens.edu
 

Alabama Center for the Arts Presents Photography Exhibition

 

ATHENS, Ala. - The Alabama Center for the Arts will present Soloman’s House, a photography exhibit by Alabama artist Sarah Cusimano Miles. The show will open on July 10 and run until August 28 and be held in the Center’s main gallery located at 133 2^nd Avenue in Decatur. A reception is planned for Thursday, Aug. 21 beginning at 5:30 and with an artist lecture at 6pm. It is open and free to the public.

Miles is a native of Gadsden, Alabama where she is an exhibiting artist, photographer, and educator. Her work has been published and exhibited in venues both national and international, from the Alabama Museum of Natural History to the Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as being in a number of private and corporate collections. Miles has also received awards from the National Society for Photographic Education, the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Worldwide Photography Gala, and PhotoNOLA. In 2012 she was named to the Top 50 in Critical Mass from Photolucida.

Miles teaches at Jacksonville State University where she has contributed to the transition of the traditional film-based photography program to a digital-based curriculum. She has a BFA from Jacksonville State University, and a BS in Psychology and an MFA in Photography from the University of Alabama.

The photographs in the body of work, Solomon’s House, explore the collections repository of the Anniston Museum of Natural History in Anniston, Alabama. The specimens are taken from the dark storage where they reside, on shelves, in bottles, and in drawers, and bathed with light to illuminate the often disturbing and exquisite elegance of the accumulated and warehoused organisms. By portraying these objects through the tradition of the still life, the artist explores ideas of cultural decadence and beauty in stasis.

The title, Solomon’s House, references a work by Francis Bacon published in 1627 called The New Atlantis. In it, he wrote of a fictitious utopian science facility he called “Solomon’s House” that embodied the growing scientific ideals of the 17th century.

The Alabama Center for the Arts is a collaborative project between Athens State University and Calhoun Community College. The Center opened in 2012 and combines the two institution’s art programs. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 am to 8:30 pm, and Friday from 8:00 to noon.

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Athens State Exhibiting Student Work in Microphotography

For Further Information

Guy McClure

256-233-8296

Guy.McClure@athens.edu

 

For immediate release

April 15, 2013

www.athens.edu

Athens State Exhibiting Student Work in Microphotography

ATHENS, Ala. – Athens State University’s interdisciplinary course Digital Microphotography and Image Analysis will be hosting a morning reception for student artwork on Tuesday April 16th at 10:00 a.m. on the first floor of Waters Hall, on the main campus of Athens State University. The course is taught by professors George Williams, Pamela Keller and Gail Bergeron.  The event is free and open to the public.

Large, colorful and detailed photographs will be on display from students who are majoring in art or biology. This course is designed to enable the student to produce works of scientific specimens in digital photography through the use of various photomicrographic techniques.  These will include ordinary light, phase contrast, electron microscopy, and digital image analysis.  The student’s final projects are a creative effort.

The course is unique in its team-taught approach. The instructors originated the purse and recently delivered a paper on its success at the Alabama Academy of Science meeting in Birmingham.

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Attached picture:  Microphotography image of a neuron cell body.

Athens State University Celebrates Black History Month with “A Focus on Black Art in America.”

Athens State University announces its lectures and exhibits planned to celebrate Black History Month during the month of February. All events are free and open to the public. The theme for the University’s month-long celebration is “A Focus on Black Art in America.”

A lecture by African American sculptor John Solomon Sandridge is planned for Tuesday, February 12 beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Alabama Center for the Arts located at 133 2nd Avenue in Decatur. A reception for Sandridge will be held prior to his lecture at 6:00 p.m. in the Center’s main gallery.

Sandridge’s bronze sculptures of African American cowboy and western-themed subjects are a large part of the University’s recently obtained Wideman Collection. Sandridge’s work with other bronzes by Marshall Mitchell and reproductions of works by Frederic Remington are on display now through February 25 in the main Gallery of the Alabama Center for the Arts. Gallery hours are 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. After the initial showing, the University plans to place the sculptures into its permanent collection, as well as making them available for exhibition at other venues. 

A lecture by African American artist Debra Raffe will be held on Thursday, February 21st at 7:00 p.m. in the Chapel on the second floor of Founders Hall.

Although Riffe is a Mississippi native, Birmingham, Alabama has been called home since 1996.

Riffe rediscovered her love of illustrating when she taught herself how to needlepoint. In 2004, Debra decided to convert her needlepoint art into designs for linoleum block relief prints. She has taught linoleum block printing, locally and regionally, and she has received the honor of many juror awards.

Riffe’s latest exhibition focuses on and celebrates the 50 year anniversary of the civil rights movement. Her collection titled “Holding the Line” consists of portraits of the leading activists of the movement.

“My linoleum block relief prints reflect my love for the south and all things southern,” states Riffe. “The majority of my compositions depict singular, figurative images of African Americans placed in rural settings of the American South. Individuals are represented at work or at play performing everyday tasks in timeless, solitary, reflective moments; tasks which represent concepts of social status and identity.”

Currently on display in the University’s gallery in the Sandridge Student Center are posters from the Library of Congress’ Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection. The collection consists of reproductions of ten portraits taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten between 1932 and 1964. The portraits on display consist of portrait photographs of artists and celebrities synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance.

The gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is located on the upper floor of the Sandridge Student Center.

For more information about these or any events at Athens State University please call 256-233-8296.

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