Clarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) Department of Art + Design is excited to announce its 2020-21 season of exhibitions and visiting speakers. Generously supported by the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA), the APSU Department of Art + Design can bring nationally/internationally recognized artists and thinkers directly to Clarksville with programming that is free and open to the public.
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The New Gallery will host five exhibitions showcasing contemporary art from regional and national artists, as well as the annual juried student exhibition.
“I say this every year, but we are super excited about this year’s slate of exhibitions and speakers,” Michael Dickins, gallery director and Visiting Artist program chair, said. “We’re beginning our fourth year in the new Art + Design building, and though we are currently in a global pandemic, we are continuing to bring world-class artists directly to Austin Peay and the residents of Clarksville.
“With invaluable support from CECA, this excitement will continue as The New Gallery will host an exciting exhibition lineup of contemporary artists that will challenge, awe and inspire our students to push themselves in their individual practices; and our Visiting Artist Speaker Series will allow our students and community to directly interact with the influential artists of our time.
“Of course, this year will be a little different,” Dickins continued. “To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, The New Gallery has shifted to reduced hours, and all of our speaking engagements will be held virtually. We’ve invested in new technology that will give art lovers the experience of being in The New Gallery with 360º video walkthroughs for each exhibition, and we’re able to offer our artist lectures to the rest of the world via Zoom. You can now engage with our top-quality programming from the comfort and security of your home.”
The New Gallery exhibition season includes contemporary artists visiting from Tennessee, Alabama, Maryland, New York and Maine:
- Spectacle. August 24th-September 18th, 2020. Artist Panel Discussion: pre-recorded, currently online. Since Spectacle was forced to close after only 1.5 weeks of opening due to the concerns about the spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus last March, The New Gallery is reopening Spectacle for the first exhibition of the fall season. Originally intended to be an exhibition to coincide with March Madness, the distinctly American phenomena surrounding college basketball, it has now become an exhibition about the importance of collective spectatorship in an era of global pandemic, where all sport has stopped and cheering crowds have gone silent. Featuring the work of Chris Boyd Taylor, Vesna Pavlović and Brandon Donahue, Spectacle is an exhibition that employs an artistic approach to the sport of basketball. Each of these artists uses basketball, and its subsequent culture, as influence in creating works that recontextualize the artifacts of the sport and emphasizes the performative nature of the spectator.
- Art+Design Faculty Triennial. 28th-October 23rd, 2020. The Art+Design Faculty Triennial will showcase the artwork of our dedicated and talented APSU Art + Design faculty. It is a chance for the students to engage in their professor’s work and a chance for the community to see the work of the professional artists that teach at Austin Peay State University. Daily social media posts featuring an exhibiting artist per day will also accompany the exhibition.
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- Katie Hargrave/Meredith Lynn: Over Look/Under Foot. November 2nd – December 10th, 2020. Artist-guided installation tour: available online when exhibition opens. Artists’ Talk via Zoom: 6 p.m. Nov. 10. In 2017, Katie Hargrave and Meredith Lynn drove across the country. They camped along the way, and on the road and in their tent, they often found themselves in the shadows of RVs. During this trip, they were struck by how the recreational vehicle makes nature accessible while also keeping it at a distance. Their campsite neighbors had all the comforts of home, in the middle of the desert, prairie, forest, on the beach and in rainstorms. They began to question their own relationship to landscape – how were the tools that they were using (cameras, cars, hiking boots) mediating their experience as well? How are these instruments facilitating and manipulating their understanding of the natural world? This multimedia installation is an exploration of accessibility of national parks and the symbiotic relationship of preserving natural resources for human enjoyment and fulfillment.
- Peter Precourt: The Katrina Chronicles. January 13th-February 12th, 2021. Artist-guided installation tour: available online when exhibition opens. Artist Lecture via Zoom: 6:00pm February 3rd. Peter Precourt’s studio-based hybrid painting/drawing/graphic story memoir The Katrina Chronicles recalls the events of his family’s time in coastal Mississippi before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. This memoir is a study and reflection of what it means to have a home, lose a home and seek a new home – to seek a new space to call home and what does home mean. It’s an investigation of spaces and the meanings and memories that we as human assign to them.
- Laura Splan: Entangled Entities. February 22nd – March 26th, 2021. Artist-guided installation tour: available online when exhibition opens. Artist Lecture via Zoom: 6:00pm February 25th. Laura Splan is a Brooklyn-based artist whose transdisciplinary work intersects science, technology, design and craft. Splan’s recent studio practice explores the interconnectedness of cultural and biological systems during the coronavirus pandemic. This timely new work examines the precarity of public health as it is affected by both human and natural forces. Drawing upon sociopolitical and biomedical landscapes, the work unravels the invisible threads that entangle them. This multimedia installation considers material, technology and process as integral to conceptual interpretation and as catalyst for sensory engagement.
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- 53rd Annual Juried Student Exhibition. April 5th-28th. 360º walkthrough video: available when exhibition opens. Awards: TBD. This competitive juried show honors the APSU Department of Art + Design’s outstanding student artists for their hard work and creativity. The show is professionally juried from outside Austin Peay State University, emulating the practice of real-world art shows. The exhibition showcases the array of artwork produced by students during the past academic year and allows students to participate in a professional exhibition where a qualified juror selects artwork and artistic merit awards.
The New Gallery will be open 10:00am-3:00pm Monday-Friday or by appointment. Curator-guided tours are also available upon request for groups smaller than 15. Closed on weekends and holidays and follows the university’s academic calendar. For more information on the exhibitions or lectures, contact Michael Dickins, gallery director, at dickinsm@apsu.edu [2].
Dates are subject to change. To stay informed of upcoming events or scheduling changes, follow the Austin Peay State University Department of Art + Design on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.