EUP Grads Participate in Erie Art Museum Gallery Night

Erie Art Museum Gallery Night

For immediate release: November 22, 2011

Contact:
Angie Seykora (402) 617-6261 angieseykora@gmail.com
Gratia Brown (203) 907-7864 gratiab@gmail.com

Edinboro Graduate art students participate in Erie’s Gallery NightSECOND INSTALLMENT opens December 2^nd in adjoining galleries at the 1509 Gallery (1505 State Street) and Basement Transmissions (1501 State Street)

Edinboro University graduate art students will be holding an opening reception for their exhibition, Second Installment, on Friday, December 2, 2011, from 7 to 10 pm in two adjoining galleries: the 1509 Gallery, 1505 State Street, Erie, PA and Basement Transmissions, 1501 State Street, Erie, PA.  The exhibition will be open Thursday and Fridays from 3-7 PM and Saturdays 12-4 PM through December 17^th.  Additional visits may be scheduled by contacting Gratia Brown (above).  The show is free and open to the public

The century-old Art Department at Edinboro University of PA (EUP) is composed of fifty faculty and staff and almost a thousand students studying art education, art history, applied media arts and fine arts and crafts.  EUP art alumni are working around the country and across the globe.  EUP graduate students are pursuing MFA degrees in ceramics, metals & jewelry, painting & drawing, printmaking and sculpture.  Full graduate assistantships and a tuition waiver are awarded to all students accepted into the three-year MFA studio program.  Graduate applications are due January 15^th.www.arts.edinboro.edu

Hailing from across the U.S. (Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah), the seven graduate students are displaying ceramics, metals & jewelry, paintings, prints and sculptures.

Jessica Armstrong, a second year metals & jewelry student, completed her undergraduate degree at Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY.  She continuously moves metal to give the appearance of fabric.  Armstrong uses layering within hollow forms to protect the delicate crinkled metal.  The play of chaos and anxiety through folded metal are held close in a blemish free outer casing.

Gratia Brown, a second year ceramics student, completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.  Brown’s work explores the tension between fantasy, memory, and environments through landscape vignettes and abstracted agrarian objects.  Her work has been featured in galleries in the U.S. and abroad.  Residencies include the Hungarian Multicultural Center, Budapest (HU), the I-Park Artist Enclave (CT), and the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts (ME).

Courtney Bryan, a second year printmaking student, completed her undergraduate degree at West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas.  Her current explorations include the themes of searching and seeking, both personally and outside of herself.  Through the use of layering and digitally manipulated imagery, including both contemporary and vintage photographs, she strives to capture a sense of sentimentality and remembrance of simpler childhood times.

Michelle L. Ghisson, a first year painting student, completed her undergraduate degree at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.  While her work has always focused on memories, particularly fraught with emotions, her paintings have shifted slightly to a more non objective expression of those moments.  Color, texture, layering, scraping, pushing and pulling the surfaces of relative shapes around the canvas, all are extremely important to Ms. Ghisson.  Collectively, she feels that all of these techniques are linked to the revealing ways in which one recalls personal memories.  She pays tribute to her past by repainting it to find her truth. 

Garrett Loveless, a second year ceramics student, completed his undergraduate degree at Utah Valley University, Orem, UT. Garrett is interested in Complex Systems and Chaos Theory and he uses many small pieces combined with alternative ceramic techniques to embrace the inherent nature of these systems in his work.

Angie Seykora, a second year sculpture student, completed her undergraduate degree at Creighton University, Omaha, NE.  Her work explores processes of repetition to incrementally create forms with industrial materials such as mason line, steel wool, roofing felt, and plywood. The materials are transformed conceptually and formally, taking on new textures and applications with their engagement in space. 

Travis Winters, a second year ceramics student, completed his undergraduate degree at Buffalo State University, Buffalo, NY.  His work explores zoomorphic representations of musculature processes which can be very repulsive and disturbing, but are an essential part of the natural world.  His work has been featured in the Ceramics Monthly 2009 Undergraduate Showcase and published in Lark Books 500 Raku, as well as several gallery shows across the region.