CIRCA
An exhibition featuring alumni of Indiana University Bloomington’s Painting and Drawing Undergraduate Program, circa 1990, to explore the diverse paths taken in their commitment to art.
ARTISTS :
alphabetic. artworks below are examples for each artist and may not necessarily be available to exhibit depending on schedule, etc.
JOEL GARGANO
Chryse Chaos Regolith Substation Shalbatana Vallis. 2019. Mixed Media on Paper. 24 x 36”
Regolith Feed Inlet Processing Test – Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 2020. Mixed Media on Paper. 24 x 36”
STATEMENT : Current interplanetary exploration endeavors require imaginative solutions to complex engineering problems. Regolith carbothermal processing stations and other inventions for extreme environments reconfigure raw materials and open the potential for humans to explore desolate places in the solar system far from our planet. Likewise, the imaginary structures and spaces in my drawings are excavated out of the drawing process and offer a chance to consider new worlds and strange occurrences.
EXHIBITION RECORD :
SOLO EXHIBITS
2001 CPOP GALLERY Detroit, Michigan “Whitney Garden Party”
2000 KRESGE ART MUSEUM East Lansing, Michigan, “In Memory of...”
1999 GALLERY 114 - KRESGE ART CENTER East Lansing, Michigan, “Current Work in Progress”
1996 KRASL ART CENTER St. Joseph, Michigan, ”Veils, Rooms and Enigmas”
1994 AT&T CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION Bloomington, Indiana, “Paintings”
1993 INDIANA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER Bloomington, Indiana, “Recent Paintings”
GROUP EXHIBITS
2020 ZUCKERMAN MUSEUM OF ART FINE ARTS GALLERY “Infectious Creativity”
2019 VINCENT D. MURRAY AUDITORIUM Atlanta, Georgia “APS Faculty Show”
2000 JESSIE BESSER MUSEUM Alpena, Michigan, “MFA Traveling Exhibit 2000” (Curator)
1999 SOUTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY Springfield, Missouri, “Southwest Missouri State University/Michigan State University Group Show”
JESSIE BESSER MUSEUM Alpena, Michigan, “MFA Traveling Exhibit 1999” (Curator)
GALLERY 114 – KRESGE ART CENTER East Lansing, Michigan, “The Evolution of Humankind Through Drawing”
(Curator of advanced drawing students’ work of the Michigan State University Art Department)
1998 JESSIE BESSER MUSEUM Alpena, Michigan, “MFA Traveling Exhibit 1998” (Curator)
1997 VICKERS THEATER Three Oaks, Michigan, “Paintings at the Vickers”
GRANTS/AWARDS
1997-2000 Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Michigan State University
1999 Michigan State University Art Department Research/Travel Grant, Paris, France
1998 Michigan State University Art Department Research/Travel Grant, New York City
SOLO EXHIBITS
2001 CPOP GALLERY Detroit, Michigan “Whitney Garden Party”
2000 KRESGE ART MUSEUM East Lansing, Michigan, “In Memory of...”
1999 GALLERY 114 - KRESGE ART CENTER East Lansing, Michigan, “Current Work in Progress”
1996 KRASL ART CENTER St. Joseph, Michigan, ”Veils, Rooms and Enigmas”
1994 AT&T CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION Bloomington, Indiana, “Paintings”
1993 INDIANA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER Bloomington, Indiana, “Recent Paintings”
GROUP EXHIBITS
2020 ZUCKERMAN MUSEUM OF ART FINE ARTS GALLERY “Infectious Creativity”
2019 VINCENT D. MURRAY AUDITORIUM Atlanta, Georgia “APS Faculty Show”
2000 JESSIE BESSER MUSEUM Alpena, Michigan, “MFA Traveling Exhibit 2000” (Curator)
1999 SOUTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY Springfield, Missouri, “Southwest Missouri State University/Michigan State University Group Show”
JESSIE BESSER MUSEUM Alpena, Michigan, “MFA Traveling Exhibit 1999” (Curator)
GALLERY 114 – KRESGE ART CENTER East Lansing, Michigan, “The Evolution of Humankind Through Drawing”
(Curator of advanced drawing students’ work of the Michigan State University Art Department)
1998 JESSIE BESSER MUSEUM Alpena, Michigan, “MFA Traveling Exhibit 1998” (Curator)
1997 VICKERS THEATER Three Oaks, Michigan, “Paintings at the Vickers”
GRANTS/AWARDS
1997-2000 Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Michigan State University
1999 Michigan State University Art Department Research/Travel Grant, Paris, France
1998 Michigan State University Art Department Research/Travel Grant, New York City
MIRA GERARD
Memory Alpha. 2020. Oil on Canvas. 60 x 78”
Can You Tell Me How It Will Be Now. 2022. Oil and Acrylic on Canvas. 48 x 60”
STATEMENT : I make paintings of the figure as a way to understand desire. When I was growing up, my family lived in an insular spiritual community in the woods of New Hampshire. I became fascinated with fairy tales and the meadows, stone walls, and the forest. I was a frequent subject of my father's paintings, playing in fields of flowers in sun-drenched landscapes. A favorite pastime of mine was preparing miniature environments in hollowed-out trees where I imagined tiny invisible beings might want to dwell, always hoping I might catch a glimpse. Figures in my paintings are always considered through the lens of self and other; looking and being looked at; being imagined/imagining. I have a series of ways to trick myself into finding a sincere path to every painting through utilizing techniques inspired by surrealist practices. Starting with stains washes of color in the first layers allows for each painting to take shape slowly. I pay attention to phrases or images flickering into my thoughts. From there, I incorporate things like figures, landscape, flora and fauna gleaned from many sources, including my own staged photo and video shoots. There’s a cinematic element that takes over when things coalesce. My hope is that viewers can find a way to get caught up in the narrative, making their own meaning if they like.
BIO : Mira Gerard received a BFA from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and a MFA from The University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Their work has been exhibited at venues including Tyger Tyger Gallery (Asheville, NC); Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN); Walter Maciel Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA); Huntsville Museum of Art (Huntsville, AL); Nave Gallery (Boston, MA); Wichita Center for Contemporary Art (Wichita, KS); Marianne Boesky Gallery; Sloan Fine Art (Both in New York, NY); William King Museum (Abingdon, VA); and James May Gallery (Milwaukee, WI), to name a few. They have attended artist residencies at Ox-Bow School of Art (Saugatuck, MI); The Hambidge Center (Rabun Gap, GA); The Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT); Cill Rialaig Project (Ballinskelligs, Ireland), and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (Amherst, VA). Publications and journals include New American Paintings #118, The International Zizek Studies Journal, Artizein Journal, Poets & Artists, Hyperallergic, and The Cortland Review. Mira has lived and worked in Johnson City, Tennessee since 2001, where she is a professor in the Department of Art & Design at East Tennessee State University. She also is the founding director and curator for Tyger Tyger Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina since 2022.
RYAN GRAHAM
The Table in Spring, 2022. Oil on Canvas. 24 x 36”
The Day is Blue and Green, 2020. Oil on Canvas. 24 x 30”
BIO : Ryan Graham graduated from Indiana University's BFA program in 1992. Afterwards he moved to New York, where he has lived for the last 30 years. Ryan's paintings, prints, and artists' books have been exhibited in New York, as well as in Japan and in Key West, Florida. While currently focused on painting, Ryan was a teaching assistant of lithography at Columbia University, as well as a printmaker for the artist Kiki Smith from 1998-2003.
STATEMENT :
I seek harmonies in color and light, and I create my paintings as places and worlds I want to live in and explore. I'm often drawn to the sea, to forests, and to gardens. If people are present, they serve to guide the viewer into the space of the painting. The people and places may not be namable, but they evoke a specific experience of the world that is common to all of us.
I seek harmonies in color and light, and I create my paintings as places and worlds I want to live in and explore. I'm often drawn to the sea, to forests, and to gardens. If people are present, they serve to guide the viewer into the space of the painting. The people and places may not be namable, but they evoke a specific experience of the world that is common to all of us.
KAY GREGG
Party Camcorder. 2014. Acrylic Paint, Spray Paint on Wood Panel. 24” x 18”
Burroughs Adding Machine. (Unique Print) 2017. Acrylic Screen Print Ink on Paper. 19" x 25”
BIO : Kay Gregg is a visual artist who obtained her BFA in Studio from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1991 and her MLS from Indiana University-Indianapolis in 2011. Her artwork has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States, including at the FWMoA in Fort Wayne, IN, where she held solo exhibitions such as "Beautiful and Obsolete" in October 2014 and "This is just a Test" in June 2015. She has also participated in group exhibitions like "With Love From the No Coast" at the 1975 Gallery in Rochester, NY in June 2015 and "LAX/DTW: Detroit Hustle..." at Inner State Gallery in Detroit, MI in June 2017. With a focus on the physical nature of human-to-machine interactions, Gregg’s work has been collected regionally and nationally.
STATEMENT : In my work, I use highly specialized and single-purpose objects to drive meaning in two ways. These objects serve as both beautifully designed objets d’art and machine-age memento mori. Once costly and state-of-the-art, these devices now haunt secondhand shops and church thrift stores, worth more as scrap. I create graphic and diagrammatic works that are unambiguous in their representation. The viewer discerns what the image depicts without the need for any language. However, while the object's identity is clear, its intended purpose remains mysterious.
ELIZABETH KENNEY
Hommage to Anselm Kiefer, 2016, Oil Painting, 11 x 14”
Walking in the Clouds, 2016, Oil Painting, 12 x 16”
STATEMENT : I find inspiration for my work in the world around me particularly in nature, music, film, dreams, and mysticism. Stories often reveals the abstract layers of meaning of the dilemmas we encounter played out in the natural world. In reflecting on stories and observing nature, I see the whole range of human experience manifesting itself.
Incompleteness is a human condition. Finding meaning in the sacred, stories, nature, art, relationships, and our lives helps to alleviate this inherent human condition.
In my art, I strive to convey a sense of wonder and mystery. I hope the viewer can see themselves and find their own story, meaning, and
symbols in the struggles we all encounter but sometimes have trouble articulating.
EXHIBITIONS :
2021 Solo Show at Southside Art League, Greenwood, IN
2020 Burgundy Show at Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis, IN
2020 Artsy via Artbox Project, Art Zurich, Switzerland
2020 Science Fiction show, Garfield Park, Indianapolis, IN~ Featured for Prospectus
2020 Abstract Show, Southside Art League, Indianapolis, IN
2018 Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts, Butler University, IN
2017 Artbox Project, Art Basel, Switzerland
2017 Harrison Center for the Arts, Group Show, IN
2008 Dean Johnson Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
2006 Harrison Art Center, Indianapolis, IN
2021 Solo Show at Southside Art League, Greenwood, IN
2020 Burgundy Show at Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis, IN
2020 Artsy via Artbox Project, Art Zurich, Switzerland
2020 Science Fiction show, Garfield Park, Indianapolis, IN~ Featured for Prospectus
2020 Abstract Show, Southside Art League, Indianapolis, IN
2018 Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts, Butler University, IN
2017 Artbox Project, Art Basel, Switzerland
2017 Harrison Center for the Arts, Group Show, IN
2008 Dean Johnson Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
2006 Harrison Art Center, Indianapolis, IN
AWARDS :
2013 Best of 2D, Carmel Arts Festival
2008 Honorary Mention, Faces of Woman 18th Annual Juried Exhibition, Las Vegas, NM
2013 Best of 2D, Carmel Arts Festival
2008 Honorary Mention, Faces of Woman 18th Annual Juried Exhibition, Las Vegas, NM
JAMES KENNEY
Sierra Gothic. 2022. Oil on Paper. 13 x 13“
Contrivance / Satyrs (WIP). 2023. Oil on Board. 12 x 14”
BIO : Jim’s work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, The Alexandria Museum, and at The Wrong Biennale. He has received multiple awards for his fine art and design work. Jim has degrees in painting and design, for which he was inducted into the PHI BETA KAPPA Society and given the gold medal by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), respectively. He taught for thirteen years at the CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, as an Associate Professor. Jim was a curatorial assistant at the NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART and completed the practical film laboratory at PIXAR Animation Studios. He worked for ADOBE, and has served on multiple of their advisory boards. Jim professionally created title and graphic sequences for film and broadcast at IMAGINARY FORCES in Hollywood. In 1997, he made This Side Out, which toured globally at RES-Fest, the first premiere digital film festival. His second film, Ground, also screened in RES-Fest and was distributed globally. Jim’s film work includes three feature documentaries and four internationally-screened short films. Film projects to which Jim has contributed have been honored by the SUNDANCE Film FestivalL and the ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURES. His work was broadcast during the 2003 Academy Awards. For many years, Jim directed international filmmaking programs at the CANNES Film Festival. He is also the founder and director of SF SHORTS: The San Francisco International Festival of Short Films.
STATEMENT : I grew up in the Reagan years of corporate Peoria, Illinois, heralded for its mediocrity. Internally, I had lost the battle to not be gay. Externally, I constantly fought anyone finding out. Gays were repulsive targets. My disgusting life would be ended, if I didn’t finish it first. To not-one-person could I be off-my-guard and honest. I was completely alone and stranded, as others progressed through further stages of development. Throughout my childhood ran a television commercial for Tarn-X. A hand would dip the tarnished silver in and out of the Tarn-X, revealing the perfectly polished treated portion. It’s better to look good, than to feel good. My work is a lustrous Sisyphean veneer. One might overlook its necrotic creep for the mask of gold and pearl. An alchemy of base materials into the value of beauty.
ADAM REEF
Rackham's Forest, 2012, Oil on Panel with Oak Frame, 24 x18"
Occuli Temporis, 2020, Vitreous Enamel and Fused Leaded Glass with Oak Frame, 48 x30"
BIO : Adam Reef has a BFA from Indiana University, Bloomington, an MFA from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and several years learning from Pygmalion’s Art Supplies in Bloomington. He has shown in galleries, art centers, and museums across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Indiana. He lives and works in St Paul, Minnesota with his wife Cyn, his pup Sheytoon, a small urban garden, and two sickly bonsai trees.
STATEMENT : My time in the IU art department was formative. The ancient alchemical language of paint was always foremost, but critiques challenged how to use this language. My mythological mind was drawn to the idea of the Apollonian (noble, rational, intellectual) opposed to the Dionysian (emotional, passionate, sensual); and our instructors seemed happily cast in these roles. Prof Bob Barnes was Apollo and Prof Barry Gealt was Dionysus. My ideas and ambitions were Apollonian analysis and storytelling, but my understanding of paint was pure Dionysian passion. To follow both threads, I’ve been working in two different directions in oil paint and in fused enamel stained glass, both incorporating woodworking. If there’s a unifying principle it’s the basic human importance of making physical things by hand as an antidote to mass mechanical production
ANita (Chiantello) Tuccillo
THERE I, 2023, Oil on Acrylic, 40 x 56”
Just Keep, 2023, Oil on Acrylic, 18 x 24”
BIO : Anita (Chiantello) Tuccillo was born in the US, traveled and lived in many states and was fortunate to live in in Milano, Italy for a year and Canterbury, England for a semester. She went to undergraduate school at IU from1989-1993. During her study at IU, she was accepted to Chautauqua School of Art for a summer program in 1991 returning to IU to complete her BFA in 1993. She then went on to do her graduate work at the University of Notre Dame from 1994-1997. Here Nita created her Identity thesis project (available in the Hesburgh Library) She did take part in a pilot program in conjunction with the University of New Mexico and the University of Notre Dame. This program offered art history, painting, and drawing. While in graduate school, she won a solo show at the Indianapolis Art Center, won the Grumbacher Gold Medallion Painting Award, was published in Painting as a Language, was awarded a solo show in Chicago at Mary O'Shaughnessy's Wood Street Gallery, and won Best of Show for her thesis exhibition at the University of Notre Dame.
After receiving her MFA, she moved to New Mexico with her husband to work at the Harwood Museum, and teach at UNM-Taos and UNM-North. In 1997, she moved to Buck's Rock Camp in Danbury Connecticut to teach middle school children how to paint. During the fall of 1997 he went back to Taos, NM where she continued to work for the Harwood, UNM, and Lo Fino Fine Furniture and Lighting. She had the opportunity to be a designer for Lo Fino working for the rich and famous. Her claim to fame is that she designed two credenza's and the Connecticut home of Paul Simon. In 1999, she moved to Peoria IL to teach at Peoria Notre Dame HS while adjuncting at Bradley University. Finally, Anita received a full-time position at ICC teaching art and is currently a full professor of art at that institution. Please note that she has continued to work as an artist throughout these years as well.
After receiving her MFA, she moved to New Mexico with her husband to work at the Harwood Museum, and teach at UNM-Taos and UNM-North. In 1997, she moved to Buck's Rock Camp in Danbury Connecticut to teach middle school children how to paint. During the fall of 1997 he went back to Taos, NM where she continued to work for the Harwood, UNM, and Lo Fino Fine Furniture and Lighting. She had the opportunity to be a designer for Lo Fino working for the rich and famous. Her claim to fame is that she designed two credenza's and the Connecticut home of Paul Simon. In 1999, she moved to Peoria IL to teach at Peoria Notre Dame HS while adjuncting at Bradley University. Finally, Anita received a full-time position at ICC teaching art and is currently a full professor of art at that institution. Please note that she has continued to work as an artist throughout these years as well.
STATEMENT : While creating metaphorical dichotomies referring to the scale of in-focus to blur and still to motion, I balance the choice of constructions maximizing the universal reads from pain to pleasure and from life to death.