Penn State Altoona offers two new artist exhibitions

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 - 1047 hits

ALTOONA — Exhibitions of work by Melissa Wilkinson and Denise Bookwalter will be on display in the McLanahan and Sheetz Galleries of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts February 23 - April 1, 2012.

Wilkinson is an associate professor of art at Arkansas State University. She holds an MFA in painting from Southern Illinois University and a BFA in painting and drawing from Western Illinois University. Recent exhibitions include, Columbia College in Missouri, The Shore Institute for the Contemporary Arts in Long Branch New Jersey, and the Manifest Creative Research Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Wilkinson states, "My work is built on an interest in social commentary and the undercurrents of visual culture. I attempt to investigate its' greater coercive potential through the self-conscious, meditative act of drawing and painting. My use of mediation and the reproducible source reinforces my own understanding of post modernity and the ubiquity of the photographic image in culture today, while manifesting itself in an abstracted photorealist painting style. I am interested in uncovering a manipulated collective consciousness by recreating a pre-consumed, transmogrified image. It is through reinterpretation, mediation, manipulation and context that I change their meanings.

Bookwalter is an assistant professor of art and head of printmaking for Florida State University. She is also the director of the Small Craft Advisory Press. She holds an MFA in printmaking from Indiana University, an MA in art education from the University of Illinois and a BA in geological sciences and art theory and practice from Northwestern University. Recent exhibitions include the University Minnesota; Edison College, The Project Gallery in Marseille France, and the Domashnaja Galereja in Kiev, Ukraine. She has held artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Jyvaskyla Center for Printmaking in Finland.

Bookwalter states, "My work and research is a series of explorations and investigations into the development of technologies, most recently centered around aviation through early flight models, aviation's lesser known pioneers and the fascination of the early airships.

Historical visual and literary investigation culminates in series of prints that create a dialog between the historical and contemporary perspectives of developing technologies. I begin by rebuilding many of the historical machines in a digital virtual space using 3D modeling in addition to other digital tools. The resulting images are exported into traditional and experimental print medias creating a dialogue between the virtual and the actual, the historical and the contemporary, and science and art. The work addresses my explorations and experiments with materials, 3D space, the traditional verses the digital, and the history of technology."

A reception for both artists will be held Thursday, February 23 in the Titelman Study of the Center.

The galleries are open Monday — Thursday, 10 a.m. — 2 p.m. and before and during all performances. For further information, call the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts at 814-949-5452.