![\"Austin](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" "\\"Austin")
Clarksville, TN<\/strong> – Austin Peay State University\u2019s The New Gallery, with support from the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the APSU Department of Art + Design, recently opened its 2018-19 exhibition season with \u201cMcLean Fahnestock: Undiscovered Country.\u201d<\/p>\nFahnestock is a media artist who works across modes of communication, from video and photographic images to sound, text and display.<\/p>\n
![\"McLean](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/McLean-Fahnestock-Undiscovered-Country.jpg\" "\\"McLean")
<\/a>McLean Fahnestock – Undiscovered Country<\/p><\/div>\n
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She is inspired by the presentation modes found in the institutions that specialize in the delivery of knowledge \u2013 museums, libraries and the media. Fahnestock considers each of these and their roles and contrasts them with heuristic experiential modes of acquiring knowledge.<\/p>\n
She mines these same locations and their archives for the materials she uses in her work.<\/p>\n
Fahnestock\u2019s projects are concerned with exploration. Using her own family legacy as a footpath, she is tracing the arc of exploration from the first spark that motivates an adventure to the final resting place of the ephemera and the propagation of the mythic character.<\/p>\n
Specifically, she is examining South Pacific exploration through the lens of her grandfather and great uncle\u2019s voyages. They sailed the South Seas for the American Museum of Natural History in the late 1930s \u2013 early 1940s, and their artifacts and recordings are found in several museum and library collections.<\/p>\n
Fahnestock\u2019s explorations begin in the institutions that house the archives and tell the tales of these acts and expand out into the field, re-imagining and representing material. She is drawn to the character of the explorer, with their singular focus on frontiers in spite of risk\u00ad\u2013the possibility they could see something authentically new that could then lead to a place in history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we\u2019re opening up our exhibition season with a celebration of one of our own faculty members,\u201d Michael Dickins, director of The New Gallery, said. \u201cMcLean joined the Department of Art + Design as an assistant professor of art in 2016, and currently serves as our foundations coordinator. I have been familiar with McLean\u2019s work for several years, as we have collaborated on several video projection\/sound projects. I am honored to be able to work with her in my role as gallery director. The discussions, planning and installation of this exhibit has been personally rewarding, and I am excited for her to unveil her newest works that combine video projection, sculpture and discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean received a BFA from Middle Tennessee State University and a MFA from California State University Long Beach. Her work has been exhibited and screened across the United States and internationally in Ireland, Canada, Belgium, Germany and Japan.<\/p>\n
[320left]She has received an ARC grant from the Durfee Foundation, two Hoff Foundation grants, and was awarded a Professional Artist Fellowship from the Arts Council for Long Beach. Her work was included in a DVD compilation of short videos by the LA Film Forum. She was a finalist for a 2012 Vimeo Video Award and was recently named \u201cMost Promising New Artist\u201d at MADATAC 05, in Madrid, Spain.<\/p>\n
The exhibit opened on August 27th at The New Gallery, located in the APSU Art + Design building, and runs through September 21st. Fahnestock will be giving a public lecture on her work at 6:00pm on September 18th in the building\u2019s Heydel Hall. A reception will take place from noon-1:00pm on September 19th, with a gallery talk featuring Fahnestock beginning at 12:30pm. All events are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
For more on Fahnestock and her work, visit: www.mcleanfahnestock.com<\/a><\/p>\n Hours for The New Gallery are Monday \u2013 Friday, 9:00am\u2013 4:00pm. The gallery is closed on weekends and holidays, and its hours follow the University\u2019s academic calendar.<\/p>\n