Campus Connection

[caption id="attachment_11216" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Honor #1 by Tylor Fischer"][/caption]

Pieces to be featured on campus, Pump House

This spring’s semi-annual UW-La Crosse senior exhibition features a diverse collection of artwork created by 18 graduating seniors. “Convergence” represents 18 distinct perspectives brought together in one final exhibition. The show features a variety of media, including both two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces, ranging from photographs, paintings, prints and drawings to sculptures, ceramics, jewelry and metalsmithing. To accommodate the large group, “Convergence” will feature works in the University Art Gallery in the UW-L Center for the Arts, and the Kader Gallery at the Pump House Regional Arts Center, downtown La Crosse. Each artist will be represented by work at both locations. The exhibition opens Friday, April 20, at both locations and runs through Saturday, April 28, at the Kader Gallery and Friday, May 4, at the University Art Gallery. Opening receptions will be held at both venues April 20. The campus opening runs from 5-6:30 p.m. Non-perishable food will be collected for the UW-L Food Pantry. The reception at the Pump House takes place immediately following the campus opening from 6:30–9 p.m. Students participating include: Nicole Becker, Alison Benson, Tylor Fischer, Corey Geary, Rachel E. Hein, Jessica Hetchler, Katie Johnson, Jessalyn Kimball, Sarah McManus, Dani Mejchar, Zachary Morin, Van Ngo, Cando Pierce, Jessie Schlender, Scott Scholze, Carla Stenulson, Sierra Tiegs and Brittany Vogt. Gallery hours for the University Art Gallery are noon–8 p.m. Mondays–Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, and during events in Toland Theater and the Annett Recital Hall. Pump House hours are 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays and noon-4 p.m. Saturdays. [caption id="attachment_11217" align="alignright" width="308" caption="Shino Pitcher, salt fired porcelain by Brittany Vogt"][/caption] A look at the artists—

• Nicole Becker is a metalsmith and jewelry maker who works to expand the idea of jewelry outside of the commercial realm. She works specifically with the lost wax casting process and the Japanese mixed-metal lamination process, mokume gane. Becker wants her viewers to get lost in the complexity and conceptuality of her wearable art.
• Alison Benson uses ceramics and painting to explore and create a visual narrative specific to memory and place. Her work creates a historical documentation of what once was, and will be remembered. Benson transforms organic land shapes into something informative for the viewer to connect with and brings the narrative to life with color.
• Tylor Fischer creates mixed media digital art. He seeks to capture attention through commanding and familiar imagery, demand their attention with layers of detail and texture, and guide their understanding through subliminal narrative. Fischer relates cultural similarities through imagery while examining individuality and difference through content.
• Corey Geary enjoys drawing and graphic design. He often combines the two in his work, using line to add depth and complexity to his pieces. His strange and surreal ideas come from his wild imagination.
• Rachel E. Hein never received her letter to "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," prompting her to attend UW-L were she is majoring in art education. Her concentration is in metalsmithing and jewelry making. She relies on humor and irony in her pieces.
• Jessica Hetchler works in both ceramics and printmaking. She enjoys the physical aspects and processes that come with these two mediums. She uses this to drive her content, challenging herself and others to look at life and its problems.
• Katie Johnson works in printmaking and metalsmithing. Her current work delves into the issues surrounding people who have disabilities and exposes misconceptions society places on them. Johnson directly incorporates the drawings and writings of people with disabilities who she has worked with into her artwork.
• Jessalyn Kimball is a printmaker and drawer from Eyota, Minn. Through her travels she has combined her interest in art and philosophy to explore a more natural way of life. Kimball focuses her work on a more primitive form of expression, highlighting the movement and physicality of nature and the interactions that take place within it.
• Sarah McManus explores printmaking and watercolor painting techniques as illustrations for her written children’s stories and handmade books. In her work she draws inspiration from childhood experiences, as well as the gifts of fantasy and imagination. She strives to confront the process of making art with the same unabated courage of a child.
• Dani Mejchar expresses her memories and emotions through intaglio prints and digital photography. Working with her family and friends, Mejchar portrays the consciousness of deja vu and the sensations of elements beyond human control and intuition. Her recent work challenges a viewer’s awareness of the world's largest natural resource: water.
• Zachary Morin is a printmaker and photographer. He explores the issues of his social and cultural upbringing. By combing traditional printmaking with digital imaging techniques, his work strives to engage viewers through a high level of intimacy.
• Van Ngo found herself on the opposite side of “light humor” growing up. She naturally approaches her work in this way. Ngo’s pieces are narrated in a simple, melancholy style with saturated colors and touches of dark humor that leave the viewer feeling unresolved. Her inspiration comes from children’s fairy tales and modern pop culture references.
• Cando Pierce uses pomp, color and kid-friendly cartoons to deceive reality. She furthers the deception through actual three-dimensional sculptures of her narrative drawings. Pierce finds it truly ironic that only within a complete lie can some truth, no matter how abstracted, be found.
• Jessie Schlender combines photography and sewing in her work. She was introduced to sewing and vintage finds at a very young age. This influence led her to create silhouette portraits of her family using both art forms. Her dependence and need for family stems from her being prematurely born.
• Scott Scholze is a ceramicist working in high-fire stoneware. He creates sculptures based on popular characters from movies and video games, as well as functional everyday pottery. His recent work investigates the flow of a galactic formation using glaze techniques and different sized bowls.
• Carla Stenulson is a watercolor artist whose work centers around the unique qualities of the media. She works from nature and tries to capture an emotion versus replicating an image.
• Sierra Tiegs is an aspiring illustrator and fantasy artist who utilizes watercolor, ink and digital media. She draws inspiration from myths, folklore, and the classic illustrations of artists like Arthur Rackham. Her current emphasis is on monsters and exploring the theme of beauty versus grotesque.
• Brittany Vogt is a printmaker working in a variety of processes to explore the visual nuances of form, posture and movement, as well as the private, unspoken interaction of humans within the space they occupy physically. In ceramics, Vogt explores form in a three-dimensional way. Her sculptural and functional ware often utilizes surface carving, molding, and hand building techniques.

If you go— Who: 18 UW-La Crosse Graduating Seniors What: “Convergence” art exhibition When: Opens Friday, April 20 Where: University Art Gallery through May 4; Kader Gallery, Pump House Regional Arts Center, through April 28 Admission: Free