Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Three graduate students in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art will exhibit their work in a show titled “Pondering the Moment” to be displayed Jan. 23 through March 3 in Griffith Fine Arts Gallery on the SFA campus.
Sculptor Kailan Counahan, ceramicist Aldo Ornelas Lopez and painter Travis Walthall will each exhibit a selection of recent works. An opening reception for the exhibition will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, in the gallery, located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.
Counahan, a native of Rusk, earned an associate’s degree in art from Tyler Junior College and a B.F.A. from the University of Texas at Tyler before entering the master’s program at SFA. Counahan uses a variety of traditional and nontraditional materials, including yarn, steel, bones, bronze, wood, plastic and sand. The materials and colors used in each piece are tied to the specific memory that it is based on.
Ornelas Lopez is from Chihuahua, Mexico, where he earned his B.F.A. from Chihuahua State University with an emphasis in sculpture and ceramics. The wall installation work that he will include in the exhibition is composed of 300 individual clay pieces. The work is intended to explore the boundaries of sculpture and drawing and is a visual representation of a path in the landscape.
Walthall is from Beaumont and graduated from Lamar University with his B.F.A., emphasis in drawing, before coming to SFA to pursue painting. The work that he is including in this exhibit features recent oil paintings that explore the spectrum of human emotions using human-animal hybrid subjects. Walthall uses humor to communicate serious ideas about how both humans and animals are influenced by their environments.
SFA art exhibitions and receptions are free. For additional information about the exhibition, call (936) 468-1131.