Opening reception: Tuesday, September 12, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Special Homecoming reception: Friday, October 13, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Dan Kistler is a visual media artist living and working in southern Illinois. His pathway in art includes an undergraduate degree in studio art from Principia College, two-years of classes at The Center for Creative Studies, a decade of work as an illustrator in the Detroit market, an MA in drawing from Webster University, and 27 years of teaching art at Principia College. Kistler’s current work is taking a number of directions. In photography he has stepped back into the darkroom and has fallen in love all over again with film photography—the grain, the anticipation, the unexpected results, and the touch it takes to get an image worth working with.
Sheila Pepe is best known for crocheting her large-scale, ephemeral installations and sculpture made from domestic and industrial materials. However, the exhibition “Sheila Pepe: Hot Mess Formalism,” curated by Gilbert Vicario for the Phoenix Museum of Art, and the catalogue published with it, demonstrated that Pepe has built a more expansive and complex way of working since her start in the mid-1980s.
For more than 30 years she has accumulated a family resemblance (see Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations) of works in sculpture—installation—drawing and other singular and hybrid forms. Some are drawings that are sculpture—or sculpture that is furniture, fiber works that appear as paintings, and table top objects that look like models for monuments, and stand as votives for a secular religion. The cultural sources and the meanings twisted together are from canonical arts of the 20th century, home crafts, lesbian, queer and feminist aesthetics, 2nd Vatican Council American design, an array of Roman Catholic sources as well as their ancient precedents.
The constant conceptual pursuit of Pepe’s research, making, teaching and writing has been to contest received knowledge, opinions and taste.
“Blubby Dolls”, 2020, Variety of sizes, approximately 14 inches tall each, Fabric and polyfill
Heidi Blunt is a 2021 Master of Fine Arts graduate from The Vermont College of Fine Arts, Visual Arts program. She lives and works along the shores of Lake Superior in Superior, WI and is an instructor at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN.
Blunt’s goal as an artist is to encourage a celebratory embrace of fat bodies as imperfectly perfect. Contrary to the vast and intricate systems that shame and demonize fat bodies, she feels it is imperative to point out that having a fat body is neither a moral deficiency nor intellectual failing. She unapologetically represents the body as positive and as a space for inquisitive exploration of the body’s intrinsic contribution to the building of self-identity – a crucial step in the process of self-embodiment. While investigating questions that she has about her own embodiment, Blunt’s work holds space for viewers to question and experiment with theirs. These investigations often take the form of participatory opportunities in which she incorporates the aesthetic tools of camp, humor, kitsch, play, and an uplifting color palette to encourage celebration of the fat body.
From the ongoing series, “Scaffold: Equity of Treatment,” pen, pencil, acrylic and flash paint on Shizen Pastel Paper, 12” x 9”
Élan Cadiz is an interdisciplinary North American Visual Artist that deconstructs and balances her intersectionality through her projects. Her art and practice are grounded in the documentation of her personal narrative through the use of historical imagery and the domestic.
Cadiz’s art speaks to the promise in each individual and the struggle to overcome the barriers that prevent them from realizing their true, boundless potential. Her goal is to have viewers question their condition(s) in ways that bring about positive change in their lives and the lives of others. Cadiz attended Fashion Institute of Technology for two years after high school and continued and completed her undergraduate degree at City College of New York with a BA in Studio Art. Elan received a MFA Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts where she was awarded the SVA Merit Scholarship, Paul Rhodes Memorial Award, and the Martha Trevor Award. She has been commissioned by the Studio Museum in Harlem, El Museo de Barrio, Art in Flux Harlem, Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and more. Cadiz was one of the first Sustainable Arts Foundation AIRspace Parent Artist Residence at Abrons Art Center; and, her An American Family Album series was featured in VOGUE. Her artworks can also be found in New American Paintings magazine, issue #146, juried by Jerry Saltz and issue #153 juried by curator Lauren Haynes.
“Unseen,” 2019, hand embroidery: crewel wool, acrylic paint, pompoms, sequins on raw Belgian linen, 84” x 72”
Cayce Zavaglia earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Wheaton College in 1994 and her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Washington University in 1998. In 2001, she began incorporating wool and cotton thread into her practice and embarked on a series of hand-embroidered portraits of family and friends. Her unique sewing technique has allowed her to blend colors and establish tonalities that resemble the techniques used in classical oil painting. Her stitching methodology borders on the obsessive, but it ultimately has allowed her to visually evoke painterly renditions of flesh, hair, and cloth.
A few years ago, she began highlighting the reverse side of her embroideries in a series of gouache, acrylic, and mixed media “Verso” portraits. Historically, in embroidery, this side is always hidden from view. Zavaglia’s work challenges traditional embroidery etiquette and the place of “craft” in art by allowing the viewer to see the loose ends, knots, and the movements of the maker on the back of each portrait. In doing so, she has initiated a conversation about the divergence between our presented and private selves. The production of both Recto and Verso portraits is now the primary focus of her studio work.
In 2014, Zavaglia was selected for the Great Rivers Biennial, and she mounted her first solo museum solo exhibition entitled Recto/Verso at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. That same year, she was also awarded the prestigious Regional Arts Commission Artist Fellowship, which allowed her to embark on a research trip to Australia to document childhood friends for future works and exhibitions. Zavaglia has had solo exhibitions in Miami, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York City. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the 21c Museum and the University of Maine’s Zillman Museum of Art, the West Collection, The Ria and Lex Daniels Collection in the Hague, and numerous private collections across the United States. Zavaglia has been living and working in St.Louis since graduation and is represented by William Shearburn Gallery in St. Louis.
Graham Littell is currently working as a Post-Graduate Teaching Intern for the Department of Art + Art History at Principia College. In May of 2020, he graduated from Principia with a BA in Studio Art with a focus in Drawing. On top of assisting with classes and installing exhibitions in the Schmidt Gallery, he is actively producing a body of work for his solo exhibition: Overstimulated, still which will consist of his paintings and digital photography in late January of 2023. Following his time as PGTI, Littell intends to pursue an MFA in Studio Art.
Opening reception: Tuesday, January 24, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Opening reception: Tuesday, November 1, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Artist’s Talk: Tuesday, November 1, 7:30 p.m., Voney 109
raft, 2016-2022, 11.5” x 16.75” x 23.25”. Pulp from October 1981 and January 1981 issues of Civil War Time Illustrated, Brita pitcher, velvet, plastic eagle, family photo from the birth of our daughter, ceramic bead, beeswax from used candles, plastic grocery bag scraps, marker on masking tape
Artist, writer and teacher Matt Shelton (he/him) received a BFA from Guilford College in 2004 and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from VCU in 2012. He has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo presentations and in recurrent collaboration with Trinidadian artist Nikolai Noel. His writing has appeared in Burnaway, MONDAY Art Journal, Southern Cultures, Art Papers, Ext.1708, LOOKsee, and the Richmond Arts Review. He is the recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship and was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Richmond Critical Art Writers Workshop. Over the past decade, he has taught across 2D, conceptual, digital, and time-based mediums at Virginia Commonwealth University and at the University of Virginia, where he currently is general faculty in Foundations. He lives with his family in Earlysville, Virginia. Matt’s website addresses: https://matthewpshelton.com
David Coughtry “River Road, Twilight” 36 x 36″ oil on canvas
David Coughtry is a 1979 graduate of Principia College. He earned his MFA (1983) from The State University of New York at Albany, working with renowned painter Mark Greenwold and art historian Robert Bernstein. Coughtry has presented numerous solo exhibitions throughout the United States as well as participated in major traveling exhibitions such as New Response: Contemporary Painters of the Hudson River (1986), The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism (1993), Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas (1996), The Great American Paint-In (2020). He has completed many notable commissions and his art has been shown at various venues, including the Middlebury College Museum; The Ringling Museum of Art; The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Albany Institute of Art; The Chicago Art Institute Museum; The Lowe Art Museum; among others.
As a professor emeritus of studio art at Principia College, in 2019 Coughtry concluded academic contributions after devoting 23 years to teaching. Resuming professional work as a full-time painter, he purchased and rehabilitated a Henry Street building in Alton, IL. He now maintains his artistic practice in the new studio, which includes an exhibition space to be opened and shared with the surrounding community.
Duncan Martin “El Capitan” 72 x 70″ oil on canvas 2020-22 Yosemite National Park
Duncan Martin is a painter living and working in Elsah, Illinois and Saguache, Colorado. Since 2011, Martin’s work has focused on a painting project, 58 in 58, painting in all 59 National Parks in 59 months. (A 59th park was added in 2013). In February 2016, he painted in his 59th Park, Glacier National Park. A selection of work from this project was exhibited at the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park celebrating the 100th anniversary of Acadia National Park and the National Park Service in August 2016. The project continues as Martin develops a body of work from his experiences painting in the parks.
Martin received a BA in Studio Art from Principia College in 1976. After graduation, he spent several years painting in Calhoun County, culminating in an exhibition in Inge Mack’s Maybeck Gallery in Elsah, Illinois in 1981.
He continued his study of painting with Neil Welliver at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving an MFA in 1986. Martin joined the Principia College Studio Art faculty in 1987. In 1995, he left full time teaching to focus on painting and lived in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. In 2010, he returned to Principia College as a Professor of Art. Martin served as Chair of the Art and Art History Department for eight years and retired from teaching in June 2022.
Martin’s paintings have been exhibited at the SIUE Invitational Exhibition 2021, Edwardsville, Illinois; The Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park; Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia; Davis Dominguez Gallery, Tucson, Arizona; Nielsen Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts; Susan Street Fine Art, Solana Beach, California; Shaw Contemporary and gWatson Gallery, Maine; The Gallery at the Tucson International Airport, Tucson, Arizona; The Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona; and the New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts. His website address is: duncanmartinart.com
Opening reception: Tuesday, April 12, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
This year’s juror is Cheryl Wassenaar, a visual artist who explores the function of text in a hybrid practice of painting, sculpture, and design. Wassenaar currently serves as associate professor of art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Washington University, St Louis, where she researches and gives lectures on the visual and cultural impact of color. Wassenaar received her BFA from Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, and her MFA from the University of Cincinnati. Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally, appearing in over fifty group and solo exhibitions. Her corporate collections include Camden Real Estate headquarters in Houston; Fidelity Investments in Boston; and Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, MI. The Cabinet of Ordinary Affairs, acollaborative multi-mediaexhibition with Stephanie Schlaifer, was awarded an Artistic Innovations grant in 2018 by the Mid America Arts Alliance. She is currently represented by LongView Gallery in Washington DC. Last fall, Wassenaar exhibited with Jane Barrow in “Air-to-Air” in the James K. Schmidt Gallery. For more info, see cherylwassenaar.com
Merit Prizes: Four cash merit awards will be presented by the juror at the opening on Tuesday, April 12.
Paintings by Kristians Klava January 25 – February 12, 2022 Opening reception: Tuesday, January 25, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
James K. Schmidt Gallery Voney Art Center Principia College, Elsah, Illinois 62028
Kristians Klava is a painter from Riga, Latvia. He received his undergraduate degree in Art from Principia College and currently is working as a Post-Graduate Teaching Intern for the Art and Art History Department and as a Gallery Assistant for the James K. Schmidt Gallery. Kristians previously exhibited work in the Annual Juried Student Exhibition in 2019 and 2021, and in “Still, Life”, the 2021 Senior Capstone Exhibition. He received the Kathryn Cogswell Maule Art Opportunity Award in 2021 which included the purchase of an artwork for the art collection of Principia College.
