Fa Sta: Faculty & Staff show @ Gallery 221, HCC Dale Mabry

Fall is here, students are back in school, and in colleges and universities across the land, Faculty and sometimes staff shows are the norm. Recently, I reviewed the Adjunct Professor show at UT. See here: [Link]. These shows give students, artgoers and the community an idea of who they are as artists.



These shows can be a mixed bag, often hobbled by inbred curation, light or no selection process, large numbers of artists and the lack of a unifying theme. This does not mean they are invariably poor or to be avoided. On the contrary, to the astute viewer they provide a intimate window into a particular institution and community in one place and time.

Fa Sta, short for Faculty & Staff is the name of the show at Gallery 221 in HCC's Dale Mabry campus. Here are a few highlights...

"Untitled", a classic pen and ink nude figure study on paper beautifully executed by Laurimar Paniagua, Connections Center Developer. (sorry about the reflections in the photo to the right and left of the figure).

Joanne Kakascik-Dye, a full-time math instructor, showed this mixed media self portrait. A combination of Modernist-looking geometrics and saturated colors, note the painted face, parts of which have similarities to Byzantine icons, down to the small misplaced halo behind the head. There is a photographic print collaged into the image on the eye on the viewer's left of the face, deconstructing the painted version. The form is echoed by two other circles. This is a small work, perhaps 10x10 inches.

This photograph, apparently untitled, by Barbara Goldstein, an English instructor, questions the perspective of the Other, the subject, of the photographer. Here the two are portrayed, with the photographer in the reflection and the photographed on the other side of the window at a cafe or eatery. The photograph has been processed using HDR in a manner that gives it a heavy graphic aspect.

Larry Hart, professor of art, showed the lyrical and beautiful "Riverview", a luminist [Link] land/cloudscape.

Openings at Gallery 221 are also social events. Funded by the Student Government Association (SGA), there is usually an artist's and/or curator's talk, and in this instance, the prized Target soup cans were awarded to some of the artists. Gallery 221 Director Kathy Gibson and a young assistant handed the prizes out.

The SGA put on a great spread of goodies...

Art at work.

Congratulations to all the artists, Kathy Gibson, SGA, and HCC Dale Mabry for an intimate show. It felt like getting to know the family.


--- Luis