Gallery • 8 Photos

Davan Rosen

DRESS UP. Anna Ruhland, the new lower school art instructor, dressed up mannequins to display her artwork. She creates her pieces using textiles and printmaking.

The New Faculty Art Exhibition took place at the Harry M. Drake Gallery and featured a variety of unique and personal artwork from several new SPA faculty members who happen to be artists themselves. The exhibition opened on Jan. 13 with an opening reception that included introductions for the faculty members and discussions of their artwork. The reception also included a talented music performance by Tim Kraack, the Middle and Upper School Choral Director. The exhibition closed in mid-February to start preparations for the next exhibition.

The exhibition featured several works of art from four new SPA faculty members, all of whom happen to be artists outside of teaching. Each artist used different materials and forms of art, creating a very immersive and engaging experience for visitors. Walking around the exhibition, it was noticeable that each faculty artist created fascinating and abstract pieces that were strategically set up throughout the gallery. Some of the walls in the gallery had collections of paintings and prints done by the artists, while the other spaces had mannequins with clothing designs, a ceramic sculpture, and even a video installation. When observing the gallery from a distance, the art stood out due to the many different fabrics, tools, and techniques the faculty artists used. Each work of art was displayed in amazing lighting, and in a way that did not distract from the other works of art but complimented them. Wandering around the exhibition, and taking in the visual setup, it was noticeable that every single piece of art being displayed told a story, and spoke personally to the artist.

Anna Ruhland is SPA’s new Lower School Art Instructor and one of the four artists showcased in this new-faculty exhibition. Ruhland is an art educator, and a multidisciplinary artist, who focuses on textile art and handcraft. She has a passion for working with the youth and aims to create spaces for kids to explore their own imagination, within settings, that ensure they thrive. She had many different works of art set up throughout the gallery, some incorporating human hair, animal bones, and even blood. Ruhland’s artist statement posted in the gallery explained that her work “explores the vastness of imagination, surreality, and curiosity well, dispelling the notion that craft is inferior and reclaiming it as an activist tool.” The materials she includes in her work are raw and different, picked by her imagination, and used to create art naturally.

Spencer Legendre-Gillespie is the new Upper School Art Instructor at SPA and also participated in this abstract exhibition. Legendre-Gillespie is an experienced artist who has exhibited her work locally and nationally at locations like the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Bloomington Center for the Arts, and Rogue Buddha Gallery. She has received many grants and awards for her work and research, which have provided her with many opportunities to explore her creativity and art style.
Legendre-Gillespie’s many accomplishments are not surprising when seeing the work she shared for the New Faculty Art Exhibition. Her work was beautifully displayed in the gallery and was made with many different tools, shapes, textures, vibrant colors, and materials. Each piece was different from the next but still followed an overall pattern which made her work stronger and more fascinating to observe. Her artist bio explains how she “explores intimate, discarded, and symbolically charged materials to break down and interrogate gendered social constructs.” Her pieces are designed with the themes of fluidity, performance, and the physical process of art making.

Paola Evangelista is the new Upper School Ceramics teacher, taking over from Daryn Lowman, who now works as the Fine Arts Department Chair. Evangelista is a talented sculptural ceramic artist, who creates ceramic forms, that reflect on her tactile, visual, and social environment. She describes the feelings of the guttural need to see, to touch, to feel, and react with nature’s biomorphic lines, shapes, textures, patterns and forms including subtle references to landscapes.”

Evangelista has a never-ending sense of curiosity and a visual language that is composed of sensual biomorphic forms with textured surfaces that want to be touched and worn. She creates ceramic work that reflects on personal experiences and helps communicate her need to see, touch, feel, and react to changes in her own existence. Her work at the New-Faculty Art Exhibition was used as a form of communication to share stories and emotions that have resulted due to past life experiences. Evangelista’s artwork shows the world from her perspective, making observers curious and intrigued. In Evangelista’s artist statement, she says, “

Jessica Jones, the new SPA Middle School Art Instructor, was the final artist showcased. Jones’s artist statement posted in the gallery, during the exhibition explains that her guided art practice, “provides a window into a practice dedicated to supporting self-care and the study of artistic meditative practice to promote mental healing.”

Jones’s artwork that was displayed in the New Faculty Art Exhibition included several canvases with different mandalas. Her artist statement explained that she uses mandala art therapy as a way to cope through hardship and challenge. Creating artwork is therapeutic for her, and each piece she creates was intentionally created to process through a mental journey of acceptance while letting something go, to create something beautiful”. When first walking into the exhibition, Jones’s artwork stands out from others due to the bright colors and lines of symmetry that draw the eyes in. Her intention when creating her artwork was to spread healing and respect for cultural study, and she accomplished this with her beautiful blue mandalas.

The February exhibition in the Harry M. Drake Gallery is the art of Joy Liberman.