Fall Art Exhibitions Explore African, Native American Art; History and Processes of Photography
Posted Aug 24, 2023
This fall, Otterbein University’s four galleries will feature everything from art that celebrates African and Native American culture and heritage, to art exploring the history, equipment, and processes of photography.
Learn more about the exhibitions below and be sure to visit all of the galleries this semester.
Inviting the Ancestors: Exhibiting Traditional African Art in the 21st Century
An Otterbein and the Arts: Opening Doors to the World exhibition.
Bamazi Talle, Guest Curator
Aug. 23-Dec. 1, 2023
Public Reception: Sept. 14, 4-6 p.m.
The Frank Museum of Art, 39 South Vine Street, Westerville, OH
Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. during the University’s academic year.
Contact: 614-818-9716 or visit https://www.otterbein.edu/art/art-exhibit-schedule/
Inviting the Ancestors is curator Bamazi Talle’s response to the question, “What does it mean to exhibit traditional African art in the twenty-first century?” Talle brings precise color and installation queues into dialogue with Otterbein’s traditional African art collection to communicate his views about the importance of acknowledging and connecting with ancestors through the objects, regardless of the location. As part of the Opening Doors to the World (ODW) programming, Inviting the Ancestors also explores contemporary critiques about the history of colonization and its relationship to art collecting, as well as the role of exhibitions in de-colonizing education.
Bamazi Talle is an international contemporary painter based in Columbus, Ohio and Togo, West Africa. The exhibition features work from the David and Karina Rilling Collection.
Put a Camera in Your Pocket: The Richard B. Brandt Camera Collection
Dr. Amy Johnson, Guest Curator
Aug. 21-Dec. 1, 2023
Public Reception: Aug. 24, 4-6 p.m.
Fisher Gallery, Roush Hall, 27 S. Grove St., Westerville, OH
Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily
Contact: 614.823.1792 or visit https://www.otterbein.edu/art/art-exhibit-schedule/
The exhibition situates historical cameras (e.g., Brownies, Hawkeyes, Vest Pockets, and novelty cameras like Micky Matics and Kraft Velveeta models) into the histories of technology, gender, advertising, design, and representation, including the history of photography, itself.
The Richard B. Brandt Collection of historic cameras documents the rise of photography as a popular pastime and essential tool for recording memories. Eastman Kodak Company, the manufacturer of most of the cameras in the collection, led developments in making photography an accessible and affordable technology. Kodak’s advertising campaigns of the 1890s through the 1950s became part of American popular culture, including the “Kodak girl,” “Take a Kodak with you,” and “You push the button, we’ll do the rest.” This exhibition shows how innovations in technology, business, and visual culture shaped modern American life from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s.
The Richard B. Brandt Collection was made possible through the generous donation of Otterbein Professor Emeritus Susan Fagan, in honor of her late husband Richard “Rick” Brandt.
Mirrored and Reflected: Ice Formations Transformed
David Stichweh, Photographer
Aug. 21-Dec. 1, 2023
Public Reception: Aug. 31, 4-6 p.m.
Miller Gallery, Art and Communication Building, 33 Collegeview Road, Westerville, OH
Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 1-4 p.m.; closed holidays.
Contact: 614.823.1792 or visit https://www.otterbein.edu/art/art-exhibit-schedule/
In winter, the small world of ice patterns on the surfaces of shallow puddles creates an infinity of shapes and forms that are the subjects of my photographs. Exploring this subject with the camera extends to further exploring during the process of printing. In printing an individual exposure, the subject is flipped, mirrored, reflected and turned. Combining these four perspectives into a single print creates new visual relationships with all the lines and shapes within the subject revealing a new awareness of pattern and design.
Katheryn Horne, an emerging indigenous Ho-Chonk artist
Aug. 21-Oct. 27, 2023
Public Reception: Aug. 31, 4-6 p.m.
Stichweh Gallery, Art and Communication building, 33 Collegeview Road, Westerville, OH
Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 1-4 p.m.; closed holidays.
Contact: 614.823.1792 or visit https://www.otterbein.edu/art/art-exhibit-schedule/
Katheryn Horne is a Ho-Chunk artist originally from Wisconsin, a water protector, and a person in a fight to bring truths to the foreground. Horne creates art that shares her views and teaches visitors by reclaiming her history and culture. Using biography and taking inspiration from Effigy Mounds, Horne has developed a visual language that communicates aspects of her intersecting identities and her everyday life.
Horne’s work has been included in exhibitions across the United States, including Denver, Colorado, Washington State University, and Kent State University. In 2022, Horne was the graduate recipient of a MidAmerica Print Council Research Travel and Beyond Grant.