SSU Art Faculty Exhibition 2023

University Art Gallery
12:00 am – 11:59 pm

SSU Art Faculty Exhibition 2023 

Sonoma State University's studio art faculty, all accomplished practicing artists in addition to holding teaching positions in the Art Department, share their recent work in this vibrant exhibition. The participating artists are: Ian Bassett, Sena Clara Creston, Clea Felien, Joe Ferriso, Nathan Haenlein, Jenny Harp, Joseph Kowalczyk, Kate Oltmann, Eileen Parent, and Zack Schomp.

A diverse range of art is on display, including paintings, drawings, prints, photography, sculpture, ceramics and installation works.

Sena Clara Creston and Joe Ferriso, for instance, are both exhibiting large sculptural installations. Creston, who creates robotic sculptures and interactive works, will be displaying Plastescape, in which a four-legged robotic creature titled The Huminal treads around a garden of animatronic, plastic flowers. Ferriso uses color and highly flexible poplar wood to create bright, whimsical sculptures. His Return to Paradise Yin Yang will stretch 18 feet across the gallery floor.

Both ceramic artist Ian Bassett and printmaker and painter Kate Oltmann consider artistic and cultural traditions in their practices. Bassett is influenced by a wide range of traditional craft ceramics in his pieces, including Japanese and Korean folk pottery, Minnesota potters, and North American Appalachian pottery. Oltmann explores the iconic imagery of the American West in her work, aiming to capture the essence of the West while also examining its complexities and contradictions.

Faculty members Nathan Haenlein, Jenny Harp, and Eileen Parent all focus on abstraction in their art. Parent's intricately patterned drawings and prints, for example, are partly inspired by patterns that she finds in nature, such as the bark of trees, petals accumulated in the cracks of sidewalks, and the reflection of sunlight on water. Clea Felien and Joseph Kowalcyzk, on the other hand, both pursue figurative work, working in painting and ceramics respectively.

Together, the artworks in the SSU Art Faculty Exhibition 2023 make for a diverse and dynamic exhibition, which showcases the exceptional talent of the Sonoma State University studio art faculty.