New York, NY (CHELSEA) Garvey|Simon is pleased to announce Herron, an inaugural student/faculty show at the gallery. Faculty from Herron submitted work and made recommendations of their students. Gallery Director and founder, Elizabeth Garvey, curated the final selection. Garvey is from the Indianapolis area and has a special interest in championing artists from the Midwest. This show is the first in a series Garvey|Simon plans to exhibit in order to showcase new artists and talent outside of New York.
About Herron:
The Herron School of Art and Design boasts a rich tradition. The roots of the school were planted in 1877 when it was established as the first school in the state of Indiana dedicated to the teaching of art on a professional level. Since 1952, the Herron School of Art and Design has been an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). In 1967, Herron became a school of Indiana University.
In 2005, Herron opened the doors to its new home, Eskenazi Hall. This new 169,000 square foot facility tripled Herron's previous square footage and brought all art programs together under one roof, providing the students with more than 70 art and design studios, state-of-the-art sculpture and ceramics facilities, graduate studios, four galleries, sculpture gardens, a comprehensive art library, a grand hall, a student lounge, conference rooms, up-to-date technologies, and other amenities to enhance the school's academic and community outreach programs.
Throughout its history, the school has educated numerous successful artists, educators, curators, and designers.
Notable artist alumni include Kenneth Tyler (Tyler Graphics) and Vija Celmins.
About the Artists
Lesley Baker
Lesley Baker earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M University and an MFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design. She is an associate professor of ceramics at Herron, whose work has been internationally exhibited. Her current work focuses on what she has termed the “New Natural”—adaptations of the environment due to the influence of man. She recently completed a residency in China at The Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, where the works in this show were conceived.
Kevin Bielicki
Kevin Bielicki is originally from Hockessin, Delaware. He is currently an MFA candidate in sculpture at Herron School of Art and Design, and anticipates graduating in the spring of 2017. In Bielicki's current work, he uses wood and bent lamination processes along with color to create abstract representation of the natural world. These works are meant to capture the invisible forces that are at work in nature including growth, tension and gravity.
Valerie Eickmeier
Eickmeier earned a BFA degree from Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA degree from Washington University. She has been dean of Herron School of Art and Design since 1999. Her work has been included in numerous, regional, national and international museum and gallery exhibitions. Her current land and water paintings are renditions of natural scenes that flirt with abstraction. She is interested in capturing the complexity and richness of nature by focusing on fragments of the environment. She draws attention to the simple essence of a place, the ephemeral qualities of atmosphere and the subtle drama found in nature.
Robert Horvath
Horvath earned a BFA degree from Midwestern State University and an MFA degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is an associate professor of painting at Herron School of Art and Design. He entices viewer participation by glazing in multiple layers to create a luscious, candy-colored sweetness in the surface of his libidinous works.
Brian Curtis Johnson
Brian Curtis Johnson has lived in the Indianapolis area since childhood. He graduated from the Herron School of Art and Design in 2015 with a BFA degree in Painting. Brian's work is a collection of high-texture, mixed-media art that not only demands attention, but comes charging at a neon, and at times, dark velocity. With influences ranging from the writings of Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut to the 90s handheld Game Boy platform, this Hoosier artist blends fantasy, distortion and pop culture into one dense, esoteric package.
Jody Kinnermon
Jody Kinnermon is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Heron School of Art and Design. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Indiana University East. Kinnermon utilizes her expertise in anatomy and biology as she explores the impact of dysfunctional relationships. For example, the artist created ceramic plates that frame human bodies with physical scars and emaciation.
Alexis Nunnelly
Alexis Nunnelly grew up in Indianapolis suburbia and earned her BFA degree in painting from Herron in May 2016. Alexis often address controversial topics in her figurative work and continually reinvents her approach to painting.
Danielle Riede
Riede earned a BA degree from the University of Virginia and studied with Daniel Buren at the Kunstakademie Duesseldorf. She earned an MFA degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. Of her recent work, she says “When creating my ‘Wingspan’ paintings, I don’t have a preconceived image in mind. Inspired by dance, I begin with an intuitive movement off of the canvas and then record that same movement in paint. This gesture morphs as I move across the surface of the canvas and an image unfolds.”
Jake Sneath
Jake Sneath earned his Bachelor of Photography degree from Indiana Wesleyan University and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Herron School of Art and Design. Jake’s work orbits around ideas of beauty, emotion, masculinity and family lineage - both positive and negative.
Where: Garvey I Simon 547 W. 27 St, Suite 207, New York, NY, 10001
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 14, 2016