Hickory – Lenoir-Rhyne University Visual Art Program is proud to announce the exhibition of student work at Full Circle Arts gallery in downtown Hickory. The exhibition features the work of three senior Visual Art majors at L-R. Lauren Conroy, Neve Duston, and Jess Zeppeli display their finished series created during participation in the course Advanced Studio Practices. The course is taught by Claire Pope, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator, Visual Art, Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Advanced Studio Practices is a studio-based course that is a culmination of student’s visual arts and liberal arts education. It provides students with the time, space, and individual instructional guidance to develop and refine an interdisciplinary portfolio of work which visualizes their artistic and multidisciplinary interests based on their acquired knowledge from previous courses. Students are required to create a strong body of artwork in the medium or mediums of their choice with regular critiques and develop a written artist statement based in research and their practice. It is designed to fully prepare the artists for Senior Portfolio, their career preparation course for their field. Lauren Conroy, Neve Duston, and Jess Zeppeli all participated in the show in the fall of 2022.
Lauren Conroy’s style is a hybridization of digital processes and traditional oil painting which combines the mechanical precision of digital techniques and graphic design with the delicate physicality of a painted canvas and the tenderness of human emotion. The artist seeks challenge the separation between 3D and 2D as well as digital and traditional work by bringing them together and manifesting the same idea in both planes. Heavily influenced by contemporary art practices, recurring characteristics in their artwork are emotion, flat shapes with clean lines, bright color, precision, hybridization of themes, graphic influences and digital-based creative processes for traditional, physical outcomes.
Neve Duston plays on the use of line and form to create unique, illustrative works that explore the less typical means of identity. She does this through working in ink, using different textures and weights of the pen to create depth in her pieces. Like creating the pieces, Neve believes finding out who you are is specific to the individual, and at the same time, exciting. Each work is unique, relating to both hyper specificity or more general concepts. The artist notes that her work is emotional, containing happiness, humor, and everything else related, and that she always has one question in my mind as I create: Who am I?
Jess Zeppeli’s artwork seeks to describe their experiences as an autistic person through art. Art is an important way to explain the unique experiences they’ve had; the artist often finds it difficult to explain them in words. Their relationships with other humans as well as their relationship with Nature is at the heart of why they create art.
The Lenoir-Rhyne Visual Art Advanced Studio Practices exhibit will be on exhibit until March 4 at Full Circle Arts in downtown Hickory. It is a unique opportunity to see various approaches to making contemporary art through the lens of three emerging artists.
FCA is a non-profit artists’ cooperative located in downtown Hickory, 42-B Third Street NW. Hours currently are Thursday, 11:00am to 5:00pm and Saturday, 10:00am to 2:00pm. More information about Full Circle Arts, classes, membership, or other upcoming events is available at www.fullcirclearts.org. You may also write to Full Circle Arts, PO Box 3905, Hickory NC 28603, email gallery at fullcirclearts.org, or call 828-322-7545.
Photo: left – right, Lauren Conroy, Jess Zeppeli, and Neve Duston, in Full Circle Arts’ guest gallery.
