“Encore: An Exhibition of Art Department Alumni of Old Dominion University” at the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries
August 18, 2016
The Old Dominion University Department of Art will open the 2016-2017 academic year with its first open-call alumni exhibition, "Encore: An Exhibition of Art Department Alumni of Old Dominion University," at the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries.
The exhibition launches Aug. 26 with a free opening reception, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and will run through Oct. 9. The galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Parking is available in the 45th Street garage.
"Encore" offers a welcome opportunity to publicly reconnect the art department with its graduates and to reflect on their experiences at Old Dominion University.
"It is a rare opportunity for the public to see the diverse paths to which training in the arts can lead," said Cullen Strawn, executive director for the arts.
The University's art department, first chaired by painter and educator Charles Sibley, has been in existence for more than 60 years. During this time, the department's degree programs produced hundreds of majors who have gone on to successful careers. This exhibition is the first of a series of alumni shows celebrating the opening of the Arts in the Village district and its new arts facilities: the Barry Arts Building, James A. Hixon Studio Art Building, Art Studio 47 and the Brock Commons amphitheater.
Among the 62 works from 30 artists featured in "Encore," viewers will find a robust mixture of media and approaches, from classically rendered sculpture to sound book; from video to wearable art; from minimalist abstraction to hyper-realistic illusion; and stylistic Botticelli references to echoes of African aesthetics.
"Some pieces seduce us with their minute scale, while others stretch out across an entire wall," Strawn said.
The featured artists in "Encore" received Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Sciences, Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees spanning five decades. Their works were selected, by art department faculty and the Gordon Art Galleries' professional staff, from an impressively large number of entries. The enthusiastic response of alumni to the call for submissions not only reflects the sustained professional vitality of alumni trained in the arts at Old Dominion University, but also their continued interest in the art department and the valuation of their formative educational experience at the University.
"Encore: An Exhibition of Art Department Alumni of Old Dominion University" provides a venue for graduates of Old Dominion's art department to return to campus, but this time in the University's own Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries. With this exhibition, the University's art faculty applaud and celebrate ODU's alumni and their accomplishments.
For more information, contact the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at 757-683-6271.