THIBODAUX, La. — The Ameen Art Gallery at Nicholls State University will begin its fall exhibition season with a gallery featuring bronze sculptures inspired by the childhood memories of a Southern artist and professor.
University of Alabama instructor Joe McCreary’s exhibition entitled “WEST” is a series of small-scale bronze sculptures based upon okra, one of his childhood favorite vegetables. The exhibition, located in 200 Talbot Hall, opens on Monday, Aug. 20, and runs through Friday, Sept. 14. McCreary will visit to lecture at 5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 13 in Talbot 210.
McCreary has exhibited his work nationally in both solo and group exhibitions and his work is in several permanent collections. For the past 15 years, McCreary has introduced many artists to the process of casting sculptures. He has taught introductory sculpture classes at the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham as well as at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. McCreary holds art degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Alabama. His work deals with issues of scale, history, food and humor.
“When I set out to create this new body of work, I approached these pieces as sketches,” McCreary said. “By working in a relatively small scale and practicing a quick and direct process of construction, I gave myself the chance to explore design ideas. This technique of quickly moving from one piece to the next helped to develop the overarching design of contrasting clean planes with heavily textured forms.”
The exhibition and the lecture are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Ross Jahnke, Nicholls art department head, at 492-2501 or ross.jahnke@www.nicholls.edu.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 17, 2018
CONTACT: Jacob Batte, Media Relations and Publications Coordinator, 985.448.4141 or jacob.batte@www.nicholls.edu
