About the Exhibition

Artists:

• Lucy Breslin
• Michael Connor
• Jamie Hogan
• Hilary Irons
• Kate Greene
• Justin Kirchoff
• Joshua Reiman
• Julie Poitros Santos
• Gail Spain
• Gan Xu

Artists have a deep and often private relationship with their subject matter before it becomes public. It develops and changes over time as life experience, research, and inspiration commingle with the handling of materials, the recording of images, and the reading of texts. As I was selecting work for the 2016 Faculty Exhibition, I saw evidence of that private relationship unfold as a generous offering to the viewer. “Bounty” is the word that came to mind. The range of media I chose to include is an important assertion of that attribute. Throughout the exhibition, considerations of process and media give way to a visual manifestation of bounty that reinforces the pleasures of looking.

As I delved further into the processes and source material these artists employ, I began to think about the meaning of bounty as both generosity and reward, particularly the reward sought out by the pursuit of artistic practice. The practice entails a persistent quest of seeking and finding form for the work. It garners a unique kind of fulfillment not by providing a conclusive resolution, but rather through a process of realization that opens up new channels. Whether the search takes place in Monet’s garden or in the isolation of a forgotten highway interchange, it is in the action of seeking where the bounty is found.

– Sage Lewis '04, Guest Curator