Image Memory Representation

New Cultural Arts Center Exhibit Opens March 6;
Features Work of three UWW Artists

            March 11 Presentation Features UW-W Professor

(WHITEWATER – March 3)  University of Wisconsin-Whitewater graduates William P. Thomas, Erick A. Knudtson, and Jeremy T. Uglow will be exhibiting their work at Whitewater’s Cultural Arts Center on   402 West Main Street from March 6 through March 26.  Three painters, the artists’ works, explore representations of the human form.  Though similar in subject matter, the works of the three represent a contrast in perspective and approach (see artists’ statements below).  The show, entitled Image Memory Representation, opens March 6 with a reception at 6 p.m.  Artists and art advocates alike are invited to attend the free reception and meet the artists.  The exhibit will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. through March 26. 

Coming up on Thursday, March 11 visitors to the exhibit at the Cultural Arts Center can also enjoy a program by Chris Henige, Associate Professor and Chair of the UW-W Art Department.   His presentation, “Putting the Bayeux Tapestry in its Place” is free and open to the public.  Reservations are not required. 

Following is information about the artists whose work will be on display in March:

• William P. Thomas earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2009.  His work is on permanent display at the UW-W Student Union via a commission by Career & Leadership Development.  He received the Chancellor’s Selection Award at the Annual Juried Student Show at Crossman Gallery in 2007. 
  
  William Thomas’ statement about his art:
  I am an artist convinced that my own blackness matters. Making art has been a way for me to publicly affirm this, while allowing me to gain more understanding as to why race is significant.  In the body of work I have developed, my own digital photographs serve as direct references for paintings and drawings focused on the human face.  Beyond achieving a likeness, my interest lies in the potential psychological connection the viewer will have to the subject(s) represented.  Through my extended, informal interactions with the respective models, a definite dominant/subordinate relationship is established between us.  Often, as the person with the camera, I take on the dominant role by virtue of giving direction and asserting a certain amount of control of what poses they assume.  Even with this control, I believe the interpretations of the works are malleable in the sense that it could be said that the dominance of the artist over the sitter is secondary, or perhaps completely irrelevant in terms of the content of the final painted image.  The gaze is transposed with each new viewer, and the identity of the subject is transformed accordingly.  Our perception of figures with skin color similar to, darker or lighter than our own is informed by our particular place in society; negative, positive, or indifferent.

Regardless of how fast we are moving towards a time in history that could be considered post-racial; race matters. The continued use of the human body in two-dimensional visual art, from its stylized form in Egyptian hieroglyphs, to the walls of contemporary art museums around the world, shows that the representation of the human figure matters.  If the relevance of race or the depth of the history of the
human figure in art were both to be erased from my mind; I would still be content painting faces because of the satisfaction I get from mixing paint to reflect the divine richness in the complexity of structure and variety of skin tone in every human face.

• Jeremy T. Uglow graduated with a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  Starting in 2005, he has presented work in every juried exhibition at UW-W.  Most recently, Jeremy exhibited in a three person show called Disenchanted at the Art Bar in Milwaukee.  He portrays the human form with oils as his medium, and he paints using contemporary conflicts of socio-political issues involving his surrounding environment. 

Jeremy Uglow’s statement about his art:

My work is both an examination and reflection on how society’s values and active norms influence ideas about truth. By truth I mean to encompass:  what is moral, what is perceivable, what is reality, etc.  Through my work, I examine society and the human, which make up the whole.  I also search to unearth the extent society plays in the construction of my identity.  The examination and questioning of societal and individual subjective values are integral in the search for an objective truth.  I must break through both ideological and subjective thought in order to obtain objective truth, which I realize is possibly unobtainable.

In my investigation, I must look first into my perception of the world around me, my humor, thought processes and my ideas about life and death.  Since my concerns deal with life and its surroundings, it is logical for me to be interested in portraying naturalism.  However, I am not interested in forming an entirely naturalistic composition or figure.  I represent subjective truth by altering the skin tones of the figures in my paintings from that which is normally perceived.  This is my mode of commenting on perception’s intangible qualities. 

In addition, my process directly influences the scale of my work.  I consider myself most comfortable with an approximate life-size scale due to the mark a particular brush size makes and the room it allows for blending the paint.  I work on my image in a single obsessive compulsive, ala prima application until I feel that the particular portion is completed.  In some cases, the image may be painted with full realization and in others the image is painted then destroyed by smearing the paint or by dripping turpenoid, making the paint run.  I use these different styles to show how certain figures in the paintings reject fallacious societal values and the blurring represents their denial leading to transcending those values.

• Erick A. Knudtson earned a BFA in drawing/painting from the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater in 2009. Grants and Awards include: Undergraduate Research Grant-2008,2007; Edna Grinstead Scholarship-2008,2007; Art Department Scholarship-2007.Recent group exhibitions: Book Body Text, UW-Waukesha-2009; Disenchanted, Artbar Riverwest, Milwaukee, WI-2009; Scholarship Recipient Exhibition, Crossman Gallery-2008,2007; and Lock and Key Fine Art Gallery, Rockford, Illinois in 2009 and 2007.

 Erick Knudston’s statement about this art:

My current body of work deals with how an individual is affected by his or her surroundings. I have chosen to use images from my childhood as a starting point in an attempt to ground the work in a personal context. In doing so I am able to evaluate issues of identity in a way that is meaningful to me personally as well as address how this relates to human experience.

The relationship between the figure and the negative space illustrates the affects one has on the other. The ambiguity of this space suggests a psychological or emotional space rather than physical perspective. Each figure has a relationship with their environment that is either a physical manifestation of their internal thoughts and emotions or conversely, the environment is what causes these sentiments. How one interprets their surroundings is essentially what constitutes their particular sense of identity. 

In a personal sense, these paintings act as a form of self-critique. By using images from my childhood, I am evaluating my personal past in order to gain a stronger sense of identity. My reaction to past memories and events has aided in constructing my current belief structure. By remaining perceptive to this, I am able to understand why I respond and react the way I do. It is my overall goal to form a more thorough understanding of myself as an individual and an artist in the hope that this will inform my decisions and beliefs in later life.