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Herberger College Art faculty receive major awards, grants


January 31, 2002

TEMPE, Ariz. – The talents of the Herberger College of Fine Arts faculty will be showcased in the annual Arizona State University Art Faculty Exhibition at the ASU Art Museum, March 23 through May 5.

The annual tradition offers students and the public an opportunity to see why Herberger College School of Art faculty have garnered such prestigious awards as the Fulbright and the Guggenheim, and exhibit their work in galleries from New York to St. Petersburg, Russia. A public reception from 7-9 p.m., March 22 will launch the exhibition.

This year’s exhibition features works by approximately 40 studio art faculty in media as diverse as painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, intermedia, fiber and ceramics; as well as research by art history and art education professors.

Drawing from such a diverse range of specialty areas, the faculty exhibition features something for everyone. Among the faculty participating in this year’s show are Stephen Marc, Clare Verstegen, Mary Bates Neubauer and Bärbel M. Scianghetti.

Stephen Marc is known for the photographic collages he creates digitally. His untitled entry in this year’s exhibition is from a series about the Underground Railroad that assisted escaped slaves to reach freedom in Canada. The Awakened in Buffalo Seriesfeatures significant underground railroad sites from the Buffalo area and people Marc met while there.

Marc’s pictures are known for the repetitive patterns he merges digitally into his photos. In this series, the symbols and patterns that suffuse his pictures are drawn from those found in quilts containing coded messages that were hung on porches to aid escaped slaves.

The symbols and language of sailing are the theme in Clare Verstegen’s Sink or Swim series. Preserver, her entry in the faculty exhibition, features fabric dyed with the patterns and symbols drawn from nautical distress flags and codes.

“I am curious about the delicate threshold between opposing conditions and the moment of transition between lost or found, anchored or drifting, floating or sinking, conscious or unconscious,” Verstegen says.

Mary Bates Neubauer has created The Animal Kingdom, a large bronze sculpture inspired by small invertebrate specimens she observed in a science museum during her Fulbright year of study in Cambridge, England. However, at a large scale, The Animal Kingdom takes on a life of its own, possessing a sense of animation that suggests an alert animal, peering out from the underbrush.

A normal neighborhood in Mesa is the subject of a series of photographs by Bärbel M. Scianghetti. Kaitlin at Twelve is one of a series of pictures taken by Scianghetti, who is documenting life in her own subdivision. The striking black and white photograph captures a young girl fingering a strand of pearls around her neck. She stands by a formal dining table, captured at that fleeting moment between childhood and womanhood.

Faculty and lecturers participating in this year’s exhibition are: Lew Alquist, Brent Bond, Daniel Britton, Melissa Button, Diana Clauss, Robert D. Cocke, Dan Collins, Nick de Matties, Tom Eckert, Mary Erickson, Ron Gasowski, Denis Gillingwater, James Hajicek, William Jenkins, Tamarra Kaida, Mark Klett, Carolyn Lavender, Gingher Leyendecker, Stephen Marc, Kathryn Maxwell, Dan Mayer, Ellen Murray Meissinger, Mary Bates Neubauer, Mark Newport, Jeanne Otis, Cynthia Peterson, James Pile, Janice M. Pittsley, John Risseeuw, Virginia Sardi, Donald Schaumburg, Randall Schmidt, Anne Schutte, Jerry Schutte, Bärbel M. Scianghetti, Vivian Spiegelman, Thomas Strich, Michael Stevenson, Mary Stokrocki, Gary Sweeney, Clare Verstegen and James R. White.

The ASU Art Museum is a division of The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts. It is situated at the corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe.

Free parking is available in ASU Art Museum-marked spaces at the south end of Tempe Center, located at the NE corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street. Visitors using the parking spaces must sign in at the front desk in the museum lobby. Please call (480) 965-2787 for more information.

Media Contact:
Jennifer Pringle
480-965-8795
jennifer.pringle@asu.edu