06 Oct 2009

Beyond Appearances at Lehman College Art Gallery

Beyond Appearances
Sept. 10 – Dec. 11, 2009

Reception: Oct. 20th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm



John Ahearn, Eleanor Antin, Dotty Attie, Dawn Black, Eugene Brodsky, Phong Bui, Nick Cave, Ain Cocke, Andrea Dezsö, Chitra Ganesh, Julie Heffernan, Teun Hocks, Nina Levy, Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, Charles McGill, Yasumasa Morimura, Orlan, Tony Oursler, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, Dulce Pinzón, Lucia Pizzani, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Daniel Rozin, Karin Sander, Andres Serrano, Devorah Sperber, Hank Willis Thomas, Rigoberto Torres, Alejandra Villasmil, Kara Walker, and Deborah Willis

Beyond Appearances is co-curated by Patricia Cazorla and Susan Hoeltzel.  The exhibition celebrates the gallery's 25th anniversary and is presented in both the Edith Altschul Lehman and the Robert Lehman exhibition spaces. 



Beyond Appearances offers a sampling of contemporary portraiture, bringing together a group of artists whose works explore the individual beyond the exterior visage. Historically portraiture has always conveyed far more than physical features and these portraits touch on many issues - social, historical, political, and ontological - with insight and sometimes humor. The exhibition includes a number of works in which the artist is present as a subject, incidentally in some instances, creating self-portraits – these include Charles McGill, Julie Heffernan, Yasamasa Morimura, Chitra Ganesh, Teun Hocks, Tony Oursler, Orlan, Lucia Pizzani, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, and Andrea Dezsö – and, of course, the van Gogh self-portrait by Devorah Sperber. It also includes collaborative works, some by artists who primarily work individually and others known for their work together. This group includes: husbands and wives Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry and Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, mother and son Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas, and collaborators Rigoberto Torres and John Ahearn. The exhibition offers a broad range of media – painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, and multimedia installation – and explores portraiture through the work of artists who approach the topic very differently.

Lehman College Art Gallery, an important center for contemporary art, is housed in a distinguished building by the renowned architect Marcel Breuer. Located amid the lawns and trees of a spacious urban campus of The City University of New York, the Gallery has been open since 1984. Education has been at the heart the Gallery’s mission from the beginning, providing programs for all ages from young children to older adults.  Its Arts Learning Center encourages K-12 students to develop critical thinking and communication skills while expanding their understanding of art. In the studio, students learn to collaborate on installation projects, develop basic arts skills, and make connections between art and their other classes. The Gallery’s unique location on the Lehman College campus offers young students the opportunity to visualize college life. By introducing significant visual arts close to home in the Bronx, these programs can lay the foundation for a lifelong interest in the arts.

Lehman College Art Gallery has been a pioneer in the use of interactive media. Projects range from the production of the Public Art in the Bronx Web site, a teacher's guide to over 100 public art projects in the borough, to interactive works of art and new media artist's residencies. Bronx Architecture, a new online education project featuring eighty sites that date from the 17th century to the present, will be launched on October 20, 2009.

Programs are made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the Bronx Delegation of the New York City Council; Institute of Museum and Library Services; JPMorgan Chase Foundation; The Cowles Charitable Trust; Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; and The Beth M. Uffner Arts Fund / The New York Community Trust.

www.lehman.edu/gallery

LEHMAN COLLEGE ART GALLERY

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