MCCC Gallery to Host "Corpus Callosum"
Featuring Artists Austin Dodson and Courtenay Q. Long
1-13--06
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The
Gallery at Mercer County Community College continues its visual exploration
of the human brain with “Corpus Callosum,” an exhibition
of works by Philadelphia-based artists Austin Dodson and Courtenay
Q. Long. The show will run from Jan. 16 to Feb. 17, with a reception
on Wednesday, Jan. 25, from 5 to 8 p.m. A gallery talk will take place
on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m.
“For me ‘corpus callosum’ has always inferred dialogue, as the ‘bridge’ of nerve fibers that allows the right and left hemispheres in our brain to communicate,” says Gallery Director and co-curator Tricia Fagan. “Artists may often ‘…draw from the right side of the brain’ (to quote Betty Edwards’ book) but they also engage and draw on characteristics from both sides of their brains in creating. Here we offer two gifted artists who are both humanists, exploring similar concerns with often identical materials – but you can judge for yourself which side of the brain dominates for each!” Matt Lucash, an MCCC alum, co-curated this exhibition. Austin Dodson, a Philadelphia-based artist, has exhibited his work along the eastern coast of the United States. He received both a B.A. in Printmaking and a B.F.A. in Drawing from the University of Central Florida, and completed his M.F.A. in Painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). “My images deal with people playing, acting, being human, but also the deeper metaphorical and symbolic undertones of living in relation to the eternal nature of our realities,” says Dodson. He is an artist who may incorporate multiple techniques in each of his works, often layering different processes in “book” forms to which he returns to add additional elements months later. “It's the moment of inspiration that I am after,” he says, “and the accurate translation of the spark that instigated my imagination to create. The books are receptacles for this moment.” Courtenay Q. Long, also currently based in Philadelphia, holds a B.F.A. from Kutztown University and an M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy, where he did extensive work at the Hahnemann Hospital/PAFA anatomy lab. In 2001 he studied briefly in Italy with watercolorist Matthew Daub, and in 2005 he studied the Christian Theology of the Arts in L’abri, Holland.
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| Judith/The Devil vs. Pez-Man by Austin Dodson | |
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| Untitled by Courtenay Q. Long |
Long’s works – drawings, illustrations, sculpture, and watercolor – may conjure up memories of high school science books, but they have a deeper meaning to the artist. “This…body of work comes out of my meditations on sexuality through the lens of a conservative fundamental religious standpoint,” says Long. In his current work he explores two ideas, that of “wounds” and the issue of surgically altering the male sexual drive “…as it fits in the religious pursuit and practice of chastity and abstinence.”
Mercer County Community College is located at 1200 Old Trenton Road in West Windsor. The Gallery is on the second floor of the Communications Building. Hours for this exhibit will be Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Evening hours will be on Wednesdays, 7 to 9 p.m.