Together and Apart virtual gallery showcases teacher art
November 30, 2020
Drake Gallery is always filled with artwork of students, alumni and teachers featuring different mediums including drawing, painting, photography, sculptures and ceramics. As students have been learning from home, they have now created a virtual art gallery called “Together and Apart,” featuring the works of Upper School Fine Arts Department Chair Daryn Lowman, and Lower School Art Teacher Joy Liberman. This exhibit is accessible from Nov. 6 – Jan. 15 on SPA’s website.
“Together and Apart” features 31 teapots handmade by US Fine Arts Department Chair Daryn Lowman and 52 paintings by Lower School Art Teacher Joy Liberman.
“An object such as the teapot contains so many possibilities for design and expression. I also enjoy the historical, cultural and domestic relationships of the teapot,” Lowman said.
“I started this series of paintings at the start of March, each piece marks a day during quarantine. The paintings are hung chronologically in the gallery, beginning on March 17th and ending on May 17th” said Liberman. Each piece of art holds a different memory for Liberman which is why she painted and displayed it.
Liberman chose to document her painting journey by doing daily time-lapse videos of her paintings coming to life on her social media. “I hope that watching the process in the video will help students see that a painting doesn’t have to be fussy. Although I sometimes labor over pieces for weeks, these works were all created in an hour or less,” Liberman said.
Lowman took a different approach making it more about the story of an object such as a teapot rather than the process of making it: “I hope students take away the idea of focus, or how one object may be played and explored for a limitless period of time. Also, the idea of how the process contains a narrative. The story of making, building, assembling, all of these movements at one point involved working with a pliable, soft material – in the finished state, of all these decisions and actions becoming permanent, almost like the markings on a stone or rock – displaying the passage of time on its surface and in its shape,” Lowman said.
The “Together and Apart” exhibit is featured in the Drake Gallery, while also being available online as students have shifted to distance learning. This decision came after a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Twin Cities. Although it is not the same experience as walking into the Drake Gallery, Lowman and Liberman are happy to have a dual platform to present their work for the community.
Q&A with Joy Lieberman
1. How did you choose these specific pieces of art for the show?
I began this series of paintings at the beginning of the shelter in place order last March. Each piece marks a day during quarantine. The paintings are hung chronologically in the gallery, beginning on March 17th and ending on May 17th. (Please see my statement for more information).
2. How do they show your abilities as an artist?
Because I posted time-lapse videos of the paintings coming to life on social media each day, the project became all about sharing a little color during a dark time. It was my way of connecting with people from a distance. The subject matter meandered from week to week according to how I felt or what inspired me.
3. Which is your favorite piece of art that you put in the gallery?
My favorite pieces in the show are the series of hands and shadows. They speak to our being together and apart, near and yet distant.
4. Are these pieces recently or a collection of the last few years?
The paintings were created between March 17th and May 17th 2020.
5. What do you hope students learn from looking at your art?
In terms of content, these pieces for the most part, are not meant to communicate individual messages. In a way, they are as a whole, a sort of performance piece marking the moments that I painted and then shared them on Facebook and Instagram. I hope that in watching the process in the video, students may see that a painting doesn’t have to be fussy. Although I sometimes labor over pieces for weeks, these works were all created in an hour or less. The video also shows that from a technical standpoint, I constantly work in the round, never staying in one place too long. Just enough time to get to the point.
Q&A with Daryn Lowman
1. How did you choose those specific pieces of art for the show?
As an object, the teapot contains so many possibilities for design and expression. I also enjoy the historical, cultural and domestic relationships of this object.
2. How do they show your abilities as an artist?
Making teapots demands the maker to consider the combination of parts. How do they (all the parts) coexist, what proportions create the most interesting composition, how does the design invite the user to handle / use the piece, does the teapot function? In representing these thoughts I see the teapot as a sculpture or a painting in that the parts of the whole come together to share an idea or concept.
3. Which is your favorite piece of art that you put in the gallery?
I really enjoy teapot #25 – for me, this piece represents the playful nature I strive to install in working with clay.
4. Are these pieces very recently made or are they a collection of the last few years?
The collection of teapots represent a collection of demonstrations in my classes, and also pieces made and fired at my wood kiln in North Branch, Minnesota. The entire grouping of 31 teapots contains works made in the last 2 months, and some made as much as 15 years ago.
5. What do you hope students learn from looking at your art?
Great question – I hope students take away the idea of focus, or how one object may be played and explored for a limitless period of time. Also, the idea of how the process contains a narrative. The story of making, building, assembling, all of these movements at one point involved working with a pliable, soft material – in the finished state, of all these decisions and actions becoming permanent, almost like the markings on a stone or rock – displaying the passage of time on its surface and in its shape.