By Lauren Zazzara
Assistant Features Editor
Officials at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts have succeeded in providing fresh inspiration for students and the general public by installing three new exhibits for the spring semester.
The exhibits include “Turning Left at the Intersection: Current Works” by David Haack, O.F.M, “Riparazioni: Meditations on the Fullness of Being (Woman)” by Anne T. Kmieck and “Peter Max Prints.”
Brother Haacke is a former St. Bonaventure University professor who worked in the visual arts department for 23 years. The exhibit includes works from after his retirement. He will be giving a gallery talk today at 6 p.m. with a reception to follow, said Evelyn Penman, assistant director at The Quick Center.
“We actually asked [Haacke] for the exhibition because we at The Quick Center are celebrating our 20th anniversary this semester,” Penman said. “Brother Haacke was also was the first curator here at The Quick Center. He has a long history with The Quick Center and so we thought we should do an exhibition of his work.”
The “Riparazioni” symbolizes important women throughout history who were able to accomplish more than the men did during their times expected them to. The exhibit features baptismal dresses hung above pedestals each holding a piece of art representing a different woman. Each piece of art contains words written by the woman in her original language, according to The Quick Center’s website.
“I think it was a nice addition for us; it’s a different type of artwork than we’ve hung and it was an interesting way to hang it. The gallery is dark and it’s a very dramatic, kind of interesting installation that is different from hanging paintings or pottery or ceramics,” Sean Conklin, assistant curator at The Quick Center, said.
The Quick Center officials chose to hang this exhibit in honor of Women’s History Month in March, Penman said.
The exhibit will be up from Jan. 19 to Mar. 30. Kmieck’s gallery talk will be Mar. 3 at 2:30 p.m.
“She will talk about her research that she did on these different women and why she was motivated to create these baptismal gowns. She’s an interesting woman; I think it will be a good talk,” Penman said.
While Kmiek’s exhibit is clean and minimalistic in its mainly white color scheme, the Peter Max exhibit is vibrant.
Peter Max, an American artist, influenced the psychedelic movement and counter-culture in the later ‘60s and earlier ‘70s, according to The Quick Center’s website. His pieces in the exhibit exude American pride through the Statue of Liberty.
“The prints were spur of the moment because they were all offered to us to be exhibited and we jumped on it,” Penman said.
In addition to the new exhibits, officials updated some of the permanent exhibits at The Quick Center.
“The Asian exhibit was reinstalled with focus on woodblock printing. So there’s an entire series of that,” Conklin said. “There’s a really nice explanation series and a DVD you can watch now to see the influence of woodblock painting on French impressionists. So it kind of ties back into the permanent collection very easily.”
In addition, the 20th and 21st Century Works from the University Art Collection include seven Andy Warhol screen prints that have been displayed since last semester and were given to The Quick Center by the Andy Warhol Foundation, said Penman. Warhol was part of the pop art movement of the late 1950s.
The Quick Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. “Turning Left at the Intersection: Current Work” and “Peter Max Prints” will be on display until Mar. 1 while “Riparazioni: Meditations on the Fullness of Being (Woman)” is on display until Mar. 30.
