Forty-five minutes after the reception opened some of the professors had trickled in.
A gallery employee stuck a tiny red dot next to a painting by professor Richard Brown Lethem, indicating that it had sold for hundreds of dollars. Gallery curator Carolyn Eyler slowly made her rounds. Sluggish movement and quiet inspection transpired. Classes got out, the usually-invested art students looking eager to lay eyes on the works of their mentors.
The feeling from the student population in attendance was a hunger, a hope for refreshment, motivation from the veteran artists they work so closely with. It seemed they wanted to see growth in their professors as badly as their professors push for growth in them weekly.
Yet, even for the extremely traditional department, the results were somewhat dull.
It was the newer professors that took the spotlight in this year’s show. Jennifer McDermott exhibited feverishly pressing C-prints with tones of femininity, sexuality, and passage of time. Joel Seah performed his piece, as a cop writing up ‘bad art,’ distributing printed tickets to each professor in attendance, questioning them publicly for their lack of critical thought (to this he gave a ticket to George Burk) for use of the same material without much growth in seven years, (to head of the art department, Michael Shaughnessy) and for being “overtly Art in America” to Jan Piribeck for her sexy-metallic-framed photographs of light installments.
It was an interesting time for a professor-turned-art-cop to pry into the depth and progression of the work shown. The description of this year’s Faculty Show is the same as it was two years ago for the last faculty show; ‘to highlight the rich diversity of work by approximately 20 studio art faculty.’ It doesn’t promise to illustrate anything but the fact that the artists are different.
A student at the opening commented, “It was like the seasoned professors poked away at their craft and nailed up what they may have last framed. It lacked excitement.”
When you consider the university as a hub of regional culture meant to integrate and sift students into modern times, and take into account that for this department and these professors, graduating contemporary artists is the aim, it seems contradictory that the opening of the show wouldn’t hail the highest of student reviews. But, the energy-level was low that night. As one student put it, “It wasn’t that the work wasn’t good, it was simply that after you walked through, you weren’t overly enthused about the whole thing.”
There is a wealth of talent amongst USM art professors, this is certain. In regards to this 2008 glimpse into what they’re producing, and the “Bureau of Art Police” might attest, students were left with desire for a little more stimulation from the teachers they’re emulating.
Professors were invited to contest their tickets at appointed times throughout the day this Monday in 108 Robie Andrews Hall, where the “Bureau” will be located.
The faculty show will be hanging from now until February 10 at the Art Gallery on Gorham campus. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 1 p.m.-5 p.m.