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Aidan Lyerly: More Real than Real

January 31 – March 14

Artist Talk: More details to come.

An exploration of the human experience squished between a gaudy, unforgiving hypercapitalist world and the surreal grasp of otherworldly technology. Moments of absurdity, tragedy, and ecstasy weave together in a bizarre, whimsical dance.

Aidan Lyerly is the Best in Show winner of the 2024 Juried Alum Exhibition.

Woodworking by Michael Gibson 

March 20 - April 24

Please join us for an artist talk and reception

April 3, 12:30 - 2 p.m.

Michael Gibson is a master woodturner, having worked with wood all his life. His delicate and intricately pierced and carved artwork reflects his years of study and dedication to perfecting his craft. Particularly celebrated for his teapots, Gibson has been a featured demonstrator at the American Association of Woodturners International Symposium and has received awards to his work at their annual symposia. We are honored to have his work here at Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å as the 2024 winner of Best in Show at the Reciprocal Biennial: OCAF Members Show.

Circular Growth: Paintings by Beth Sale 

September 11 –  December 6, 2024

Wednesday, October 30, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

The Oconee Art Gallery and the Department of Visual Arts invites you to a lunchtime reception to meet the artist

Painting is a process.

In my studio I practice for life. I follow my intuition. Choices I make while painting become metaphors for life experiences – past, present, and future. Mistakes are opportunities to learn. I am inspired by the similarities of prehistoric drawings, paintings, and art objects, created by civilizations separated across oceans of time and water. The connections reveal a universal thread linking all people. Louise Hay wrote, “There is no new knowledge. All is ancient and infinite.”

Patterns repeat, personal and universal.

I’m interested in the way history is compromised of repeating stories with subtle differences. People displaced from homes fight to return or work to gain a new space, displacing people who fight to return or work to gain a new space. We all mourn loss of one kind or another.

Spiral is a linear progression.

For this body of work, I’ve considered plans (for usage of time and space) and do-lists as bubbles of possibility or building blocks for our lives. I’m curious about how we count the years of a tree’s life in it’s rings, which bear witness to events: plentiful times, trauma of drought, fires. Yet the tree grew to its height, reaching towards the sky, emerging from an accumulation of small moments of growth.

 

Spring Semester 2024

Hannah Pearson: "All At Once"

January 15 - February 28, 2024

Join us for an artist talk and DoVA day on Monday, February 12, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

“All At Once” is a collection of works that explore memory, identity, family, dreams, the spaces we live in, and how we carry all of this into the present. Photographs, portraits, illustrations and gathered ephemera are often collaged over familiar views of nature and accompanied by scribbled musings - all capturing momentary trains of thought. “All At Once” at its core examines time, how we think about it, and the things that remain as it passes. 

Reciprocal Juried Biennial 2024

March 22 – May 16, 2024

Meet the artists at a lunchtime reception!
April 10, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

The Reciprocal Biennial celebrates the collaboration between the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation and the University of North Georgia. In the 2024 edition OCAF member artists explore various interpretations of the theme “Once Upon a Time.” The Best in Show winner will have a solo exhibition in 2025.

Spring Semester 2023

North Georgia Landscapes: Selections from the Mathis Collection

March 20 – August 18, 2023

This exhibition is the first public display of the Mathis Collection, artwork donated to the Department of Visual Arts by James and Francis Mathis. The focus of their collection is North Georgia artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries with paintings, drawings and crafts celebrating our visually rich landscape.

Fall Exhibitions

Alejandro Imperial: Woodland Views

September 5 – October 12, 2023
As an acrylic painter, Imperial is consistently drawn to the beauty that exists in the natural world and the landscapes that surround him. He hopes to capture the essence of these subjects while exploring color relationships and different mark-making techniques. Photography plays an important part in his creative process as well. Using a camera, He is able to capture fleeting moments in nature and explore different compositions. His photographs serve as reference images when creating paintings. Alejandro is a Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å Visual Arts alum.

Faculty Biennial

October 23 – December 7, 2023

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso

This edition of the Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å Visual Arts Faculty Biennial will give everyone a glimpse of the child artist living inside our faculty. The professors will share their current work alongside examples of their earliest artistic expressions from childhood.

Fall Semester 2022

Transfers: Jen Graff and Alex Kraft

September 12 - October 14
Join us for an artist talk and pizza party on October 5, noon - 1:30 p.m.

Transfers is an annual exhibition bringing the work of DoVA professors to the Oconee gallery. This exhibition celebrates the ceramics program here at Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å by presenting the work of professors Jen Graff from the Gainesville campus and Alex Kraft from the Dahlonega campus. Their work explores the potential of both functional and sculptural clay through the manipulation of materials and surface decoration.

Lisa Freeman (OCAF Reciprocal Best In Show Winner)

October 24 – December 9

Lisa Freeman is an Athens artist and the 2021 Best in Show award winner of the Reciprocal Biennial which celebrates the collaborative relationship between Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å’s visual arts department and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. Freeman creates multi-layered constructions incorporating found objects, paintings and drawings which address challenging societal issues.

Christopher Hocking: Eye Doubt

January 18 – March 10
Reception: Artist Talk Wednesday, February 22, 2023 (11:00 a.m. - noon)

Christopher Hocking is an Athens-based artist who teaches painting and drawing at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. Eye Doubt is an exhibition of paintings that model aspects of absence and presence, reflection, opacity, and transparency, with surfaces that invite both projection and reflection

North Georgia Landscapes: Selections from the Mathis Collection

March 20 – August 18

This exhibition is the first public display of the Mathis Collection, artwork donated to the Department of Visual Arts by James and Francis Mathis. The focus of their collection is North Georgia artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries with paintings, drawings and crafts celebrating our visually rich landscape.

Spring Semester 2022

Department of Visual Arts Faculty Biennial

January 24 – March 11

This Biennial allows the Department of Visual Arts to highlight recent work by the art faculty. Each campus has a remarkable array of talented people who are devoted to mentoring their students. In class and out, these teachers are also practicing artists whose work is featured in galleries, museums and venues around the country. During the Biennial, we celebrate the Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å faculty as professional artists by exhibiting their recent work here at Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å for the university community to enjoy.

Stacy Koffman: Transitions

March 28 – April 22

This exhibition by former Â鶹¾«Æ·ÔÚÏß²¥·Å art professor Stacy Koffman is called “Transitions”. According to Stacy Koffman, change is inevitable and all is temporary. That is where she finds her mind and her art. Her influences range from the practice of Buddhism to Aboriginal Art, the Quilters of Gees Bend and many creative groups. She feels that trying to name and define specific “meaning” within abstract imagery is often very difficult, if not impossible. She has paintings in her studio where the meaning changes as she changes. She embraces this transitional quality of both the work and her mind. There is meaning to the process as her mind comes and goes through different spaces. Perhaps the meaning “is” the process! Letting the thoughts come and go as in a meditation practice. Trying not to hold on to any one idea or thought, and simply “be.” This is where her best work comes from and the results surprise and fill her up. It is as if she is the witness to her own process! Those are the best days in the studio.

Fall 2021

Transfers: Erin McIntosh and Gary Pearce

September 8 – October 20

Relationships Sustain Us

Reciprocal 2021

November 1 – November 26

The Reciprocal biennial exhibition celebrates the invaluable partnership between the University of North Georgia and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. This is a juried exhibition featuring OCAF members. This year’s juror was Georgia native Kristen Miller Zohn who serves as the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions for the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and the Executive Director of the Costume Society of America.

The winner of Best in Show will have their own solo exhibition during the 2022 – 2023 academic year.