Release date: Oct. 17, 2003
Contact: Sally Corbett, Director of Public Relations, Arts,
at 404-727-6678 or sacorbe@emory.edu

Emory Visual Arts Faculty Offer Two Fall 2003 Exhibitions

Photography, ceramics, painting, drawing, film/video and sculpture by Emory University visual arts faculty will be featured in two dynamic exhibitions this fall. "Rivers and Ruins: Panoramic Landscape Photographs of the Deep South," on view through Oct. 30, 2003, is a solo exhibition in Emory's Visual Arts Building (700 Peavine Creek Drive) featuring approximately 20 photographs by Emory Visual Arts Program faculty member Nancy Marshall. A group exhibition of approximately 50 works, "The Visual Arts and Beyond by Emory University Faculty," will be on view Oct. 23, 2003 through Jan. 8, 2004 at SunTrust Plaza, 303 Peachtree Street. Both exhibitions are free and open to the public.

Recalling equipment and processes popular in the 19th century, Marshall photographed with a 1926 wooden field banquet camera on 8-by-20-inch film and then contact printed on hand sensitized, platinum-palladium paper. Her subjects explore historic landscapes, rivers and cultural ruins of Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi, including: Tibwin Plantation; Etowah River; the 1800's factory ruins at Sweetwater Creek; the El Dorado Ruin, a Civil War era riverside villa; Windsor Ruin near Port Gibson, Miss., and more.

"My intention is to provide a document of these historic places that are often obscured by neglect or remoteness and to explore the mysterious connections they make with our past. Now decontextualized, the landscape floats, existing as an artificial landscape. The camera's horizontal panoramic view and my interest in history and its manifestation in Southern land draw met to landscapes that have a mysterious and timeless quality," says Marshall.

Marshall has taught at Emory since 1989. In 1979 Marshall was a Genesis Project Fellow at Ossabaw Island and later received the Nexus Press/National Endowment for the Arts grant for the publication of the monograph, "Ossabaw." Her photographs have been included in international exhibitions, public and private collections, and publications, including "In Their Mother's Eyes" and "A Handbook of Alternative Processes."

"Rivers and Ruins" is on view in the Visual Arts Building, 700 Peavine Creek Drive, Emory. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Saturdays, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. (closed on Sundays).

The group exhibition "The Visual Arts and Beyond by Emory University Faculty" include work by Linda Armstrong, sculpture; William Brown, film/video/photography; Diane Kempler, ceramics; Julia Kjelgaard, drawing and painting; Nancy Marshall, photography; and Katherine Mitchell, drawing and painting. The exhibition features new and recent works that touch on themes of the environment, ecology, people, spirituality, religion, transformation and more. The pieces were created both in Atlanta and during research trips throughout the United States, Italy, Tibet and North India.

The show will be on view in the Lower Level Gallery of SunTrust Plaza at 303 Peachtree Street, Atlanta. This exhibition is presented by SunTrust Plaza Associates, sponsored by SunTrust Plaza Associates LLC and organized by Barkin-Leeds Ltd., with assistance from the Visual Arts Program of Emory University. The exhibition will be open Oct. 23, 2003 to Jan. 8, 2004, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. (evening hours Thursday, Nov. 6 and Dec. 4) and Saturdays, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. (closed Sundays). For exhibition information, call Barkin-Leeds Ltd. at 404-816-9777.

These presentations highlight Emory's important role in the arts in Atlanta. To celebrate Emory's commitment to the study and creation in all arts disciplines and the recent opening of the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, the Emory Dance Program will give a performance at SunTrust Plaza during the Turner First Thursday Arts Walk exhibition reception the evening of Thursday, Dec. 4.

"The presence of art and those who make it--actors, dancers, musicians, poets, potters, photographers, and so many others--provides the special leaven that brings joy, excitement, questioning, criticism and a rising spirit to community," says John Howett, Emory art history professor emeritus.

Back