Press ReleaseFrom 5 -7 pm on Friday, September 14th, Marietta College’s Hermann Fine Arts Center will be the hippest place in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
The College’s Art Department is excited to present an evening full of art and music with two exhibitions and a live performance by Back Porch Alibi on the third floor of the Hermann Fine Arts Center on Butler Street in Marietta. The opening reception is free and open to the public.
On display in Gallery 310 through September 22nd is “Velvet Forms: Figure Drawings by Laida Carro.”
“Cuban American artist Laida Carro’s skilled, sensitive, hand gently models across the human form in a delicate but communicative way,” said Jolene Powell, Professor of Art and Director of Gallery 310. “I invited Laida to exhibit in Gallery 310 to showcase her touch and remind visitors how profound a brief figure study can be.”
Carro describes her work as “Figure drawings and portraits of family, friends and of professional models were drawn in 30 minutes to two-hour sittings using sanguine pastel pencil and span from 2016 to the present.” Also on view in the Atrium Gallery through November 1st is “Natural Images/Unnatural Methods: Paintings by Noah Baumgartel.” Baumgartel’s work is monochromatic enamel paintings on wood panels as well as ink drawings of natural imagery and spaces.
“I invited Marietta, Ohio, native Noah Baumgartel to exhibit in the Atrium Gallery to showcase his reconfiguration of the natural world as a way to slow the viewer’s response to the paintings,” Powell said.
Baumgartel describes his work as “Directly inspired by my experimentation and alteration of photos and sketches I make when I travel. Conceptually, I’m interested in exploring experiences and memories (in this case various road trips), and distilling those experiences in their entirety into individual images. These images attempt to reflect upon the manner in which experiences are inevitably distilled, condensed and compartmentalized both via natural decay of memory over time as well as the unnatural decay of our attention spans and desensitization to imagery of any kind in our current social media and technology driven era.”
Gallery 310 is open from 12:00-4:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Atrium Gallery is open from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and both are open by appointment at gallery310@marietta.edu. Both galleries observe all Marietta College holidays and breaks. All exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public. In addition to two exhibition receptions, the Art Department is pleased to include music by Back Porch Alibi, which is described as an acoustic-Americana-folk band. Their eclectic stylings meld indie folk with contemporary musical interpretations in a variety of genres. Collectively, they have played everything from sweaty neon pubs to open-aired festivals across the northwest territory. The “Alibis” have a little something for everyone to enjoy with their unique approach creating some of the best back porch home-spun musical goodness this side of the Mississippi.
“We are thrilled to have such a talented group of musicians play live music, Back Porch Alibi will be a profoundly good performance,” Powell said.