Lipscomb student artwork to grace walls at Frist Center

Janel Shoun | 10/02/2007

The same walls that have held artistic masterworks by Renoir, Picasso, Salvador Dali and Warhol, this fall will hold art unlike any hung there before.

Future/Now, beginning Nov. 16 in the upper gallery of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, will boast artwork by the next generation of Tennessee artists, including seven students at Lipscomb University.

The all-undergraduate-student exhibit will include photographs, mixed media works and digital work by the Lipscomb students, along with innovative and exciting works from students throughout Middle Tennessee.

“It’s an interesting mix, because a lot of (local art) programs focus instruction at the early levels on the students developing skills such as drawing and painting, so they build on traditional methods. Therefore there are a lot of traditional works, but there are also some very surprising works, some installation work and digital photographs that push the boundaries of that medium. It’s a good blend of tradition and innovation,” said Mark Scala, chief curator at the Frist.

“We have had exhibitions of student work from elementary and high school in the hallways and other spaces, but we haven’t had an opportunity to focus on university students,” he said. “We felt now was a good time to see for ourselves, and help the community see the quality of the art programs that are active and prominent in the Tennessee area.”

“This is huge, because they have never had an undergraduate show before,” said Deidre Byrum, one of the seven Lipscomb students whose art was selected for the show. She has previously served on the Frist college advisory panel, which suggested that a student art exhibit would be valuable. “I’m so excited they made that happen.”

The Frist exhibit is not only a great chance for the public to see the quality work of Lipscomb’s art students, but it is also a great experience for the students who are looking to make a career in the art world, said Laura Lake Smith, chair of the Lipscomb Department of Art.

“We are extremely excited that our students have the opportunity to showcase their work with all the other university art programs. It’s good for our program; its good for our university; and it is particularly good for our students,” she said. “They get to experience a group exhibition and how to work with galleries and museums. It has been really inspiring for our younger students, who are looking forward to a future in art with a Lipscomb degree.” Read on for a description and sneak peak of some of the Lipscomb students works at the Future/Now exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts….

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What most people don’t realize is that photography has the ability to be both representational and abstract. Ross’s photograph shows us how beautiful this everyday object can be once it has been abstracted.

The light quality and detail in this photograph elegantly present the viewer with a subject, though imperfect, that has a certain beauty unto itself.

Andi Senatro has chosen Britney Spears to create a golden sphinx of common culture. By referencing the psychic breakdown of the pop star, Senatro points to the fragile nature of pop stardom and accentuates the comic-tragedy of their status as idols.

“I really hoped this piece would get in, because it was so different, and a lot of people talked about it,” said Senatro, a Lipscomb senior art major from Harrisonburg, Va., who displayed “Gold Britney” in the Lipscomb Art Student Association year-end show this past spring.

Senatro, who began her college career destined for law school but changed her major after taking a drawing class “for fun,” created the work by sketching an image of Britney Spears after she shaved her head earlier this year. Senatro converted her sketch in to a digital image, mapped out the light and dark areas and using just glue and her own skill created a glitter image of the pop idol.

“We hold these people up like golden idols, but they’re really not,” Senatro says of her message. “There’s nothing to idolize about them. They have problems being parents or problems with alcohol, and yet we still hold them up. All that glitters isn’t gold.”

Senatro says she believes that artists should put meaning behind their art. “I think whatever you do, it should relate to you personally or a larger issue,” she said.

Senatro said she would love to create a series of glitter images, perhaps for her senior show. She is scheduled to graduate in May. But for now, she’s busy in her painting class, a first-time experience for her.

Ben Wood’s work stems directly from his interests in stencil graffiti and building construction (think Banksy meets Home Depot). However, instead of creating paintings of public ornament, Ben uses the materials and methods to create intimate portraits of himself and his nearest companions.

“…on you face” is a brutal critique of the female image in pop culture. By taking images of pop icons at their worst (and most memorable) and combining them with base material referencing toilet training paper, Byrum creates an incontrovertible skewer of a pop culture phenomenon.

“It’s kind of like these women – Paris Hilton, Britney Spears – don’t really have a purpose, so I’m giving them a purpose. It’s the most common, disgusting or humiliating purpose, but it’s a lot more important than what they are doing now,” said Deidre Byrum, a recent Lipscomb graduate from Franklin, Ky. “My work seems to always tie in to pop culture somehow.”

Byrum has always been interested in art and majored in studio art at Lipscomb. While only in kindergarten in Huntsville, Ala., Byrum did a picture modeled on Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers.” When the piece was displayed in a museum, everyone told her she should be an artist, and she took it to heart.

Byrum plans to go to graduate school and eventually teach at the college level. She was a strong leader in the art department while at Lipscomb, working with the Art Student Association and heading up a neon-colored Art in Public Places project that can be viewed in the stairwell leading to the psychology department on campus.

“…on your face,” created by stenciling the faces of various celebrity women onto toilet paper rolls, is one of Byrum’s favorite pieces and was shown in her senior show this past spring. She thinks the work fits in nicely with the avant garde flair of the Frist exhibition.

“They wanted a show that was not just portrait painting and ceramics,” Byrum said of the members of the Frist college advisory panel, which suggested the student art exhibit. “This show is so much more than that. It shows where art could be going, because we are the new generation of art.”

“Scintillant” is a video comprised of single-shot still photographs that have been sequentially animated. Drew employs this method to activate normally dormant parts of the city, to animate the inanimate, and to give life to the otherwise lifeless.

It’s funny when you take a photograph that becomes more than what you intend it to be. This photograph was taken with the intent of being a part of a linear narrative, but when singled out the content becomes much more than fun, but instead borders that of uneasy.

When Megan Rust snapped a quick photo of her friends during spring break at the beach last year, she never dreamed it would end up displayed at the Frist. The snapshot-style photo of the two bikini-clad girls laughing it up on the deck was one of a series of story-telling photos for her photography class at Lipscomb.

“The picture, taken out of context, looks wild!” says Rust, “but I think it stands on its own as an expression of our culture today. Digital cameras and Websites where you can post photos may have degraded photography as an art form. This picture takes the idea of a ridiculous snapshot found on MySpace and puts it in a fine art format – a black and white, silver gelatin print.”

Rust, a junior at Lipscomb and a Hume Fogg High School graduate from Nashville, came to Lipscomb to major in pre-architecture, but it just took one calculus class to convince has that an art major was more her style. Rust’s photography previously showed at the Student Photography Exhibit paired with the Lipscomb Faculty Art Show last spring.

“I’m happy this piece got chosen because I think it speaks more to my style,” she said. “I enjoy pictures of people and I like observing people and trying to capture their personality in a photograph. If you met these two girls – they are so wild and crazy… the picture really captures their personality and their relationship with one another.”

This photograph was created for an assignment titled “Photography and Storytelling.” The intention of the assignment is to introduce the students to the idea of adding concept to art while exploring the Southern tradition of storytelling.