by Amie Rangel

The College of the Sequoias Art Gallery will be welcoming back students, faculty and the community at large with our first exhibition of the semester, Folding Metaphors, opening Tuesday, August 30th. The opening reception is on Thursday, September 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. Also, there have been a few changes with the gallery including newly extended hours! The exhibit features three nationally known artists.

The COS Art Gallery has always had limited hours due to gallery operations being directly linked to the course ART 111AD: Exhibition Design Gallery. Fortunately, the class has changed from a two-unit course to three units starting fall 2011 allowing the hours to be extended. This transferable course is offered to all students and covers a broad range of technical and historical information.

The students are first introduced to the class through the artist’s role; the creation of work through the different media used, concepts explored through the supported text of artists’ statements and content that creates the dialogue with the viewer. This is then followed with the practicality of the gallery space, understanding the many methods of displaying, exhibiting and promoting artwork. Lastly the course discusses the role of the museum through curatorial practices, collections, archives, and museums as educational institutions.

Folding Metaphors features artists, Kristy Deetz, Ann Mansolino, and Julie Wills. The artwork spans from traditional black and white photographs, to detailed paintings on silk, along with three-dimensional sculptures – assembled from found objects. Each of the artists’ works project different meanings, however there is a strong undercurrent evoking the past through art historical references, objects of mourning, and images of figures in pastoral scenes.

Photographer, Ann Mansolino states, “The photographs thus do not depict what particular experiences in my life looked like, but rather what they felt like, or could have felt like…the moments that define who we are, how we search for and locate meaning, and the emotional and psychological texture of our experiences.”

Kristy Deetz, is an associate professor and Chair of the Art Discipline at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay. She received her MFA in painting and drawing from the Ohio State University. Her extensive exhibition record includes competitive invitational and solo exhibitions throughout the United States such as the Indianapolis Art Center, Indiana, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, Illinois, and the Museum of the Arts – Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. Ann Mansolino is an associate professor of photography at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California. She received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Riverside and an MFA from the Ohio State University. She has exhibited nationally, with a recent solo exhibition at Hunt Gallery, Webster University in St Louis. She has also exhibited internationally in Canada, England, Japan, and Singapore, and continues to travel extensively.
 
Julie Wills is an artist and art theorist living and working in Gunnison, Colorado. She earned an MFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado, and an MA in art criticism from the University of Montana. She is a member of The Bridge Club visual and performance art collaborative, as well as an artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado and at Art Farm in Marquette, Nebraska, and exhibits her work regularly.

The show opens Tuesday, August 30 and runs through Friday, September 23. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. The COS Art Gallery is located on the ground floor, room 214 of the Kaweah Building. Free parking is available on the night of the reception in lots 3, 7, and 8.
 
If coming to the gallery during the day, 20 minute parking is available in lot 3 at the corner of Meadow Lane and Mooney Blvd or in the half circle off Mooney Blvd. Our newly extended hours are: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday we’ve extended our hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For further information call the COS Art Gallery at 737-4861.
 

Amie Rangel is originally from Dinuba. She attended COS in Visalia, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drawing/Painting & Printmaking from Cal State University in Long Beach, & a Master of Fine Arts degree in Drawing and Intermedia from the University of Alberta. She is currently teaching Drawing and Color and Design at COS, Co-Gallery Director of the COS Art Gallery, and is involved in several art events throughout the community.