Until Sept. 25, art exhibition “Three Faces of Eve” by artist Eve Ozer is currently on display in the Wadsworth Family Gallery. The art reception and gallery talk for Ozer’s show was Sept. 8.
Ozer has about 45 pieces in her solo show and most of her work displayed in the gallery is new, which is what Natalie Swain, the director of the art gallery, looks for when inviting artists to be featured.
“They tend to enjoy creating work for the space, so they usually come and look at the space and then create art for that space,” said Swain. “For example, she wanted to create some larger pieces because the rooms were larger and had more wall space.”
Even though Ozer considers herself a storyteller when it comes to her artwork, she would rather have the viewer have their own interpretation of whichever piece they’re looking at.
“She considers herself a storyteller, so she personally may have a story behind a lot of this work, but I know that one thing she’s also interested in is the story the viewer gets from looking at the piece,” said Swain. “So, she doesn’t want to tell people what to think when they look at the artwork, even though she herself may have a story behind it.”
Since the purpose of the gallery is to provide a nice quiet space for the students to view a variety of different artworks, it can also open their minds and teach them to think critically.
“I think adding collages and these little non-representational pieces that kind of read as one, it just gives the students a little more variety and something to think about, maybe when they’re creating their own art,” said Swain. “It’s different from computer science or aviation or nursing, and they can come in and have a quiet space to study and then also look at the art.”
Students are encouraged to view the artwork of this show in the gallery because looking at art can open your mind to a different kind of learning. This kind of learning forces a student to learn in a different way, meaning they can get drawn to a specific piece and talk about how they feel about it.
“Basically when you’re creating art, you’re starting from nothing, so it’s not like we’re in mathematics, where you’re given a problem to solve,” said Swain. “In art, you’re actually making the problem and then also solving it, when you create a piece of artwork, so you have nothing to start with and you’re creating something that maybe has never been done before.”
It’s important for the community to be aware of these art exhibitions happening in the gallery because its local, right on campus, , and offers a good way to get immersed in the culture of fine arts, whether it be visual art or plays in the Phillip Lynch Theatre.
“I think it’s a nice place for the community to come and see an art show which they wouldn’t normally get to do,” said Swain. “It’s really nice because people that are attending a play, can then come to the gallery and see the art during the intermission or before the play begins.”
All of Ozer’s artwork in the gallery is for sale, so anyone can purchase her work, whether it’s just one piece they’re interested in or multiple pieces. Since the gallery doesn’t take any commission from the artists, there have been times where an artist has donated their profits back to Lewis.
“The nice thing about the Wadsworth Family Gallery is that we don’t take any commission,” said Swain. “So if an artist does sell a piece, which they occasionally do, we don’t get any percentage and all of the profit goes to the artist.”
Swain really enjoys all of Ozer’s work, but the one piece she’s particularly drawn to is the Reclaimed Series, which is a mixed media collage that includes 20 individual pieces.
“I love the size, colors and composition of them, so this would be my favorite body of work,” said Swain. “I think for anybody that’s looking to start collecting art, something like this would be great because they’re inexpensive.”
On Oct. 20, there will be an art reception and gallery talk for another solo exhibition titled “Distant Drums” by William Blake. Since his art deals with the reenactment of battle scenes, there will be scenes depicting gore and violence in them.
Photo Credit: Katelyn Leano
