Art exhibit draws on themes of time

GMU's School of Art exhibit Draw(n) Out tests the boundaires of what people think of as drawing. The exhibit is on display until Feb. 15 (Photo by John Irwin).

This past Thursday, nine different artists filled the Fine Art Gallery in the Art and Design Building with their drawings. In an exhibit entitled Draw(n) Out, these artists showcased their work focused on the theme of time. Draw(n) Out’s purpose was to push the boundaries of the ideas people have about drawing. 

In artist Kariann Fuqua’s piece “87 Days and Still Counting,” Fuqua based her piece on maps created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration detailing the BP oil spill in 2010.

“I’m really fascinated with maps,” Fuqua explained when describing her piece to the attendees of the reception. “87 Days and Still Counting” involved Fuqua hand drawing 87 different maps that detailed where oil was spilled. As the reception continued, Fuqua, who also served as the curator, briefly explained all nine of the pieces in the gallery.

Vistiors peer at various pieces of art at the opening reception for the School of Art's exhibit Draw(n) Out (Photo by John Irwin).

Fuqua’s work was not the only piece with an unusual inspiration.

Barb Bondy’s piece “Day Scraps (After Freud) Series” was inspired by Bondy’s fascination with sleep and sleep cycles. Mainly, Bondy, associate professor of art at Auburn University, wanted to record all the movements she made in her sleep.

In order to create her piece, Bondy lived in a gallery for 30 days while she slept in a body suit with charcoal fragments attached to the suit. The charcoal fragments tracked Bondy’s body movements while she slept on Stonehenge paper mounted to plywood.

Many of the artists featured in Draw(n) Out were representatives from the Brooklyn, NY-based galleryELL. galleryELL is an artist run gallery focused on creating interactions between communities and art.

galleryELL’s director John Ros presented some of his own work.

In his work entitled “Wall Drawing in Progress,” Ros used three separate pieces of black paper squares. Each square involved numerous layers of material to create the piece. One of the three pieces, which had white paper behind the black square, involved at least ten layers.

Attendees of the reception learned that Tim McDonald’s created his piece “….Into the Sound of Water” by putting snow on paper and then pouring ink on the snow. McDonald then would let the snow melt.

Overall, all nine artists challenged the visitors of the exhibit to think about time and how it affects life.

Draw(n) Out will continue until Feb. 15, 2013 in the Art and Design Building.