Dishman exhibition highlights departmental creativity
The Dishman Art Museum is showcasing the work of Lamar University’s art faculty giving students and community members an opportunity to see the professor’s creative works.
The exhibition, on display through Sept. 18, features works selected by the faculty, highlighting a variety of artistic approaches and ideas.
“It’s just great to be able to showcase the various talents that we have on our campus, both as faculty and as alumni and staff,” Dishman director Alex Irvine said.
The exhibition offers students a chance to see their professors in a different setting and become more familiar with the artistic community in Southeast Texas, Irvine said.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity to get involved in the art world here in Southeast Texas in general,” Irvine said. “But it’s also fun to see what your faculty is doing in their off time.”
Among the artists featured is Jacob “Jake” Miller, whose paintings are created through an intuitive and improvisational process.
“I don’t know where I’m starting,” he said. “I just start with a color or a mark or something, and then I just react. There’s no planning. I’m as surprised as anyone about what comes out.”
One of Miller’s works, “Picasso Trigger,” developed over several days of intense work, he said. The painting explores themes of violence, injustice, sexual violence and misogyny, while also drawing from art history and ideas surrounding the male gaze.
Miller said the title came late in the creative process, eventually becoming connected to both an ’80s B movie and the work of Pablo Picasso.
While the themes behind his paintings can be personal and serious, Miller said he does not want viewers to feel as though there is one correct interpretation of his work.
“My hope is that a viewer is confronted with their own thoughts and feelings and opinions and emotions,” he said.
Miller emphasized the importance of seeing artwork in person. With much of contemporary art experienced through digital screens, he said viewing the physical paintings allows audiences to experience their texture and surfaces in a way that cannot be replicated by a digital image.
“It’s nice to have to interact with people in a room, and for people to interact with the actual physical work,” Miller said.
Painter Donna Meeks takes a different approach in her
“American Dream” series, using photographs from family albums as the foundation for her work.
The images include Meeks as a child, as well as photographs of her mother and grandmother. Meeks said she uses the photographs to play with the idea of collapsing time and space, bringing together people and moments that could not have existed together in reality.
Although the work draws from her personal history, Meeks said the series also explores current situations and politics.
Rather than presenting viewers with a single message, Meeks said she prefers to leave her work open to interpretation.
“I’m not interested in making messages,” Meeks said. “I’m making art, and then the art, the content, opens up to each individual person.”
Irvine also pointed to an egg-themed work by Ashe Gardner as one piece visitors should look for when viewing the exhibition, saying she is “pretty obsessed” with both the eggs themselves and the photograph of them.
The Dishman Art Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as select Saturdays. The exhibition will remain on display through Sept. 18.