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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Students attend Grimes’ exhibit in Contemporary Art Gallery

    University students and professors visited the Contemporary Art Gallery to view the scupture installation by Jamey Grimes, the Fanfare exhibition artist. Brianna Hawkins/ The Lion's Roar

    The Contemporary Art Gallery hosted the artwork of Jamey Grimes during Fanfare.

    The opening reception was held on Oct. 11 from 6:30 to 7 p.m. where it was opened to all students on campus. Many students who attended the art show were art majors and admired the sculptures created by Grimes.

    Professor of Sculpture Jeff Mickey said that the gallery has five or six of these exhibitions a year based off a committee who chooses which artist to exhibit.

    “What happens is the faculty will often suggest the gallery director the name of a particular artist that they think has something to bring to the university community,” said Mickey. “And the gallery director, through the process of a committee, decides on which of these artists they choose to exhibit.”

    Grimes said that he enjoyed setting up his artwork in the art gallery.

    “The SLU CAG is a very unique space, and it was a lot of fun to set up,” said Grimes. “I like the combination of open spaces with long sight lines and smaller, more intimate spaces.”

    Senior art major Elizabeth Allison gave her opinion of Grimes’s sculptures.

    “It’s interesting, and also it’s very unusual, especially for installation,” said Allison. “Because typically, when you think of an installation, you think of these very block-like elements but not this organic form with plastic.”

    Grimes hopes that attendees were left noticing things they may not have noticed before in the real world.

    “The artwork is an abstraction of observations from nature, but made from plastic,” said Grimes. “I’m interested in how people encounter nature, and I hope that my sculptures might prompt viewers to notice things in the real world that they hadn’t before, or perhaps their own memories reflected in the artwork.”

    Grimes also said that he got to explore sculpting when he was taking undergraduate classes.

    “I enjoy walking around and through the objects that I create,” said Grimes. “My work combines dreamlike imagery with observations of nature.”

    Mickey said Grimes’s theme allows us to connect with nature.

    “Well, I think what he is doing is like what most artist do to some degree or another,” said Mickey. “They look at the environment around them, and they find the things that are really interesting and engaging.”

    Mickey said, “I think what he’s doing is looking at just the wonderful poetry of the natural world and sort of bringing that into a gallery space. I think what that does is allow us to connect with nature maybe think about it in a way we wouldn’t normally think about it if we’re just passing through. You know, we have so many day-to-day concerns that we often don’t think about what we are connected with, but if he brings that organic formality into the gallery space, then we’re sort of forced to consider it. We’re sort of forced to think about at least how the motion of these different shapes work in a space, how they activate three-dimensional space.”

    Grimes shared some advice for up-and-coming artists.

    “I’m very interested in art’s value within culture,” said Grimes. “I see a lot of room for upcoming artists to integrate quality work into their own community.”

    After the art show, attendees also got to watch a screening of video works created by new media and animation students.

    Assistant professor of new media and animation Cristina Molina believes it is important for students to get real world experience with exhibiting their artwork.

    “It puts a little bit more pressure on them to also produce good quality work if they know a lot of people are going to see it,” said Molina. “It’s a motivating tool, but it’s also a way to give them an opportunity and the experience of a public exhibition.”

    Junior art major Patricia Faciane explains her inspiration behind her project.

    “I actually based it vaguely off of a dream that I had a few months ago in which someone I used to be friends with started stalking me and chased me around and tried to kill me,” said Faciane. “It was a horrible dream actually, but it was really brightly colored at first and super happy, and it turned into this really dark terrifying mess.”

    Molina also gave advice for people majoring in art.

    “Learn as much as you can from your peers and professors,” said Molina. “Be dedicated to your craft. See as much of artwork as you can to learn from what other artists are doing and listen to criticism. Always try to make things as best as you can make them, and take criticism as a way of improving your work rather than being defensive about it and share your work. Show it to people so that you get feedback.”

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