The Grunwald Gallery of Art opened their first in-person exhibit of the school year Aug. 27, featuring 47 current, visiting and emeritus Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design faculty.
The exhibit will be on display Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. until Nov. 16 and is open to the public for free.
In the past 18 months, many faculty members created their work in their studios and homes, limiting their interactions with colleagues.
"After the last year and a half, it is just so nice to see what my colleagues have been doing since I have seen them only on Zoom at faculty meetings,” Janna Ahrndt, visiting assistant professor of digital art, said. “It is just a breath of fresh air to actually get in the gallery and see all of my other colleagues’ work.”
Ahrndt’s piece in the gallery, titled “Janna,” is created from JavaScript and Python computer code, she said.
“The piece is taking the data I fed to it, the redacted Mueller report, and generating new sentences based on that data,” Ahrndt said.
“Janna” was originally shown in the “Ongoing Matter” show with Sarah Edmands Martin, IU assistant professor of graphic design. Martin also has a piece on display in the exhibit titled “String to Pull,” created in 2019.
“Our pieces kind of play off each other, which is really cool and it’s nice to see them in the gallery together,” Ahrndt said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members often could only view their colleagues' work during faculty exhibits. Those featured in this gallery teach many different concentrations in the Eskenazi School, including sculpture, printmaking, digital art and ceramics.
“I love seeing my colleagues’ work,” IU photography professor David Ondrik said. “We actually hardly get to interact and see what we are up to unless we really make an effort to one on one make studio visits.”
Ondrik has two pieces on display in the gallery titled “Psychic Warfare” and “I’m Really A Good…”, which are experimental works or works in progress.
The two pieces are “unique gelatin silver” prints that highlight hidden photos in them, which blend into the rest of the piece and are visible when taking a closer look. “Psychic Warfare” has photos from the 2017 Unite the Right rally, and “I’m Really A Good…” has photos of Brock Turner and Bill Cosby, who were both convicted for sex offenses.
“They are a response to current events in history, almost like a curse or a hex in an effort to excise these terrible events in American life, culture and history right now,” Ondrik said.
A piece by visiting faculty member of fibers, Fafnir Adamites, titled “Monuments to Boundless Softness,” takes up a wall. Adamites said the piece takes up space to leave room for conversation about tough topics, like inherited trauma.
Other large-scale pieces include “The Fall,” which is made of screen print and cut paper, by Tonya Torgerson, visiting faculty member of printmaking. Rowland Ricketts, associate dean of the Eskenazi School, and Osamu James Nakagawa, Ruth N. Halls distinguished professor of photography, also have a collaboration piece titled “Crossing Lines” on display.
“It was really wise to include more large-scale pieces and pieces that are installation work,” Adamites said. “It makes the feeling of the gallery really vibrant and exciting.”
