The Syracuse University Florence (SUF) Art Gallery is launching a new exhibition and lecture series dedicated to contemporary artists. "Contemporary Visions: Encounters with Art" spotlights the work of practicing artists and will explore issues faced by artists in the 21st century. Each exhibition is accompanied by an artist's lecture followed by a discussion, which provides context for the dialogue.
"With this new initiative, SUF wishes to emphasize that art is very much a thing of the present -- a fact which sometimes gets sidelined as our students immerse themselves in the medieval and Renaissance history of Florence," says SUF Director Barbara Deimling. "This exhibit and lecture series asks students to engage with current art practice and the issues faced by contemporary artists. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on the art of the past: art which was, of course, contemporary -- and often revolutionary -- in its own time."
The series will open Sept. 19 with the exhibition "FOCUS: Current Approaches to Photography." Originally conceived as the second part of an exchange exhibit with one of SUF's partner schools, Santa Clara University in California, "FOCUS" looks at current practices in the diverse world of contemporary photography. In spring 2006, SUF faculty members Stefania Talini and Francesco Guazzelli presented their work at Santa Clara; the current exhibition at SUF will showcase the work of three photography professors at Santa Clara. Susan Felter embraces the new possibilities offered through digital imaging software by creating new realities through digital collage, while Renee Billingslea and David
Pace continue in the tradition of documentary photography recording the realities they encounter -- for Billingslea in Santa Clara and for Pace in El
Salvador. All three artists engage the medium's most lasting debates -- its relationship with painting and its role in recording truth.
While SUF is still considering its possibilities for the spring 2008 installment of "Contemporary Visions," fall 2008 will be dedicated to a mixed media exhibition from the faculty at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, celebrating 10 years of collaboration with SUF.
"FOCUS: Current Approaches to Photography" will open Sept. 19 at 6:15 p.m. with a reception and lecture by the artists: Billingslea, Felter and Page. The exhibition will continue through Oct. 14. For more information about "Contemporary Visions," "FOCUS" or the SUF Art Gallery,
visit http://www.syr.fi.it/suf_art_gallery.
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