Ode to Degas National Juried Exhibition

The Coburn Gallery at Ashland University announces a national juried exhibition entitled Ode to Degas. This exhibition will culminate in a collection of works that embody the concepts of movement explored by Edgar Degas, most specifically in his dancers. Open to artists at least 18 years of age residing in the United States. Cash awards. Works in any media accepted. All work must be original art conceived and executed solely by the artist within the last two years. A maximum of two entries for $20.00 are allowed per artist. All entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2010. See www.ashland.edu/coburngallery for the prospectus.

Pics from the John Carlson Open Studio at AU

OPEN STUDIO with John W. Carlson WED Nov 11th

Carlson will be the guest artist at the fall 2009 open painting/drawing studio sessions in the Center for the Arts 343 on Wed., Nov. 11 from 7 to 9 p.m. This open studio will offer students an opportunity to work directly with John Carlson and experience his expressive painting style. For more information, contact Cynthia Petry, Director of the Coburn Gallery, at 419.289.5652.

More Carlson Reception pics

Carlson Opening Reception Photos

Carlson Skateboard Deck Giveaway 11/5/09

The Coburn Gallery at Ashland University will be giving away a skate deck painted by artist John W. Carlson during the opening reception for Carlson's solo painting exhibition on Thursday, Nov. 5, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Carlson's skate deck was created for an exhibition titled “Red Bull Gripped Canvas” at the Pop Shop Gallery and Studio in Cleveland during September of 2009. The drawing will be held at 6:30 p.m. and there is no entry fee for the drawing. The person whose name is drawn does not have to be present to win.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION : John W. Calson

The Coburn Gallery at Ashland University will host an exhibition of work featuring the painter John W. Carlson from Bay Village, Ohio. Works in the exhibition feature images from his new painting series titled “Rumors of Greatness.” The exhibition opens on Thurs. Nov. 5, and runs through Dec. 13. The Coburn Gallery will host an opening reception for the exhibition on Nov. 5 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Always artistically gifted, Carlson began his career as an artist by attending Cleveland’s Cooper School of Art. Inspired by the works of Egon Schiele, Franz Kline, Edward Hopper and Lucien Freud, Carlson strives to find a balance between expressive drawings and boldly executed paintings.

Recently, Carlson was juried into the prestigious Midyear Show at the Butler Institute of American Art (juror: George Adams) and invited to participate in the Florence Biennale by the Internal Committee of the International Biennial of Contemporary Art for 2009 at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, Italy.

Carlson also was nominated for the Annual Cleveland Arts Prize in 2009. Born in Ashtabula, Carlson now resides in Bay Village, Ohio, with his wife and fellow artist Erin Giddings.

The Coburn Gallery is open from 10 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Gallery admission is free and open to the public.

Carlson will be the guest artist at the fall 2009 open painting/drawing studio sessions in the Center for the Arts 343 on Wed., Nov. 11 from 7 to 9 p.m. This open studio will offer students an opportunity to work directly with John Carlson and experience his expressive painting style. For more information, contact Cynthia Petry, Director of the Coburn Gallery, at 419.289.5652.

Coburn Gallery Layout

Click to enlarge image.

UPCOMING Ascherman Artist Lecture

To accompany the What is a Hero? photography exhibition, a visiting artist lecture will be presented by Herbert Ascherman Jr. on Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. in Ronk Lecture Hall in the Dwight Schar College of Education on the Ashland University campus. The artist talk is free and open to the public. Ascherman has been creating fine art portraiture for more than 30 years, specializing in stunning black and white and the resurgent art of platinum photography. Internationally recognized for his photographs of people in creative, commercial and social settings, his work has been exhibited and commercially published throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Japan and India.

Visit us on the weekends now !

First week of the gallery being open on Saturday & Sunday- we had the AU Center for Nonviolence here on Saturday and I hope the artwork sparked some interesting conversations.

Photos from the What is a Hero? Opening Reception

HERO Opening Reception TODAY !!

The reception for What is a Hero? photography exhibition is today from 4:30pm-6:30pm. Please join us for this powerful photographic exploration of what is a hero. Featured artists: Honey Lazar, Steve Stone, Herbert Ascherman, Jr., and Steve Cagan. Reception photos should be posted by Monday 9/14.

What is Hero? photography exhibition installation has began !

It was a productive day at the gallery- how exciting to unpack the photographs for this powerful HERO exhibition. Counting the days until the opening reception on Thursday Sept 10th from 4:30pm-6:30pm. Hope y0u will join us on Thursday. Mark your calendars for TH September 24th Herbert Ascherman, Jr. visiting artist lecture at 7pm.

OH+5 Exhibition opportunity for Ohio artists

Artist Opportunity: The Dairy Barn Arts center OH+5

Discover some of our region’s most talented artists at The Dairy Barn Arts Center’s OH+5 exhibition. OH+5 is The Dairy Barn’s seventh biennial, all-media, juried art exhibition featuring artists from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. OH+5 was created with the goal of featuring a wide array of contemporary art that varies in size, style, and media. This year’s OH+5 exhibition will expand viewers’ awareness and appreciation of the variety of media, techniques and innovative trends in contemporary art.

Click here for a printable entry form and rules

Jurors include:

Brian Harper (IN) is an Assistant Professor of Fine Art and Ceramics Area Head at Indiana University Southeast. He received his B.F.A from Northern Arizona University and his M.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been included in over 50 exhibitions in 23 states including 8 solo exhibitions. Additionally, he is the founder of Artaxis.org, an online network of artists that showcases the work of over 150 artists influential in the current development of contemporary ceramic art.

Dennis Harrington (OH) director of the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery, earned a bachelor of fine arts in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, in 1976. Harrington completed his master of fine arts in painting and drawing at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Art & Architecture in 1979. From 1979-95 he was assistant to the director of the Toni Birckhead Gallery, a commercial venue in Cincinnati. Prior to his appointment as director of the Weston Art Gallery in June of 1998, he served as exhibition preparator for founding gallery director Salli LoveLarkin.

Simone Osthoff (PA) is Associate Professor of Critical Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Media and Communications from the European Graduate School in Switzerland, an M.A. degree in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an M.F.A. degree from the University of Maryland. She is a member of the Leonardo Reviews panel since 2000. Her many interviews, essays, and book chapters focusing upon contemporary art have been translated into eight languages and included in among others, various MIT Press and Routledge books as well as in international art magazines and web publications. She is a Fulbright Fellow and a frequent lecturer in the United States and abroad having participated in dozens of conferences worldwide. Osthoff is the author of Performing the Archive, Atropos Press, forthcoming 2009.

The fall exhibition season is almost here ...

The Coburn Gallery fall exhibition season is almost here.......the students will be back on Monday July 24th. As gallery director I have been in the process of reviewing proposals packages for the 2010-2011 exhibition schedule. We have had 88 submissions and the postmark deadline is Friday August 14th, and they are still coming in daily.

Our first exhibition of the fall semester is entitled What is a Hero? which opens on September 10th.
It is a photography exhibition featuring Honey Lazar, Steve Cagan, Herbert Ascherman, Jr. and Steve Stone. More information will be posted in the following weeks.

Ohio All Media Juried Art Exhibition

What a great turnout for the 9th annual Ohio All Media opening reception
on Sunday July 26th !

The Coburn Gallery at Ashland University has released the awards for the Ohio All Media Juried Exhibition and Mansfield native Ken Arthur’s assemblage sculpture, titled “The Conversations We Never Had,” has received Best of Show.

Arthur is a Mansfield native whose combined passions for collecting and art has created unusual necklaces and unique assemblage sculptures. The tower-like assemblages are made using found objects and fragments of buildings, tools and machines selected for their form and color.

Other works of his include outdoor installations with natural materials and collaborations with other artists. Arthur has created and curated exhibitions including "Mask, Not Mask," a comparison of African masks and found objects, and "Art and Industry," an exhibition honoring Mansfield's Bicentennial.

The following artists received merit awards at the exhibition, which runs from July 26 through Sept. 4 at the Coburn Gallery: Chrissy Deiger’s photography titled “Conflation Series Number 6,” Joshua Risner’s acrylic painting altarpiece titled “Speaking of Faith,” and Jessica Maloney’s digital transfer print “Atmosphere 1.”

Deiger , from Toledo, Ohio, defines her work as an experiment of poetic exploration. The spiritual self, nature, and the subconscious are resonating themes in her work. Deiger's aesthetic involves working only with available light, using slow shutter speeds and she often experiments with extreme exposures. In most cases, her images do not involve a center subject, rather she seeks a comprehensive view as to what creates the spirit and character of different places, and aims to illuminate how these are often indistinguishable from our own. To emit more depth and texture to her images, she also often transfers them onto various surfaces such as wood and paper. Deiger received her bachelor of arts from Kenyon College, in both anthropology and environmental studies. She later pursued a master’s in teaching from Pacific University in Oregon. Following numerous photography classes during her college career, she has worked with many photographic professionals at both the Anderson Ranch in Colorado, and at the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park.

An Ashland University student, Risner has worked as a sign painter, graphic designer, illustrator and creative director. To Risner, the value of painting is in the substance and craftsmanship it requires and its ability to invoke an extrasensory experience for the viewer. In order to develop his skills as an artist, he is currently pursuing his bachelor of fine arts degree at Ashland University.

Ashland resident Maloney received her bachelor of fine arts degree in fine art photography and her master of fine arts degree in digital arts from Bowling Green State University. She is currently an assistant professor in Digital Art at Ashland University and also holds the position of SpaceTime Student Traveling Exhibition Curator for an international student exhibition for ACM Siggraph. Her awards in 2009 include: Director's Selection Award from the Center of Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colo., Juror's Award from the FAVA Art Gallery in Oberlin, Ohio; and the Sid Yellen Award for Photography from the Mansfield Art Center in Mansfield. Her work has also been shown this year both nationally and internationally at venues including, Pixel Fusion Exhibition at Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University in Thailand; Spaces Gallery Members Show in Cleveland; Art Dwellers Show at the Sin Factory in Cleveland; and at the Red Dot Members Exhibition at University Hospitals in Cleveland. Her work can be found online at www.jessicamaloney.com.

There were three juror mention awards: Gwyn Rohrer’s “What We’re Made Of “a digital print, Yvonne Bakale’s collage titled “Chance Encounter” and Ashland University Associate Professor Keith Dull’s color reduction print titled “Soliatarie Boogie: Size Matters.”

The Coburn Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the 2009 Ohio All Media Juried Art exhibition at Coburn Gallery and the opening reception, visit www.ashland.edu/coburngallery. The Ohio All Media exhibition closes on Sept. 4, 2009.

Photos from the INprint Exhibition

INprint Opening Reception

The INprint exhibition opened on Friday May 22nd in the Coburn Gallery with a large turnout with the combination of the Opus II & Ashland Regional Ballet Spring Dance Concert in the Hugo Young Theater. The exhibition runs through July 16th.

Keith Dull "Life on Mars"

INprint Exhibition opens Friday May 22nd

Coburn Gallery presents
“INspire, INdigenious & mINnetrista”:
Selections from the INprint Group
Exhibition Dates: June 22-July 16, 2009

Opening Reception on Friday May 22, 2009 from 6:30pm-8:00pm

The theme for the Inspire suite of prints: The teachers at “Art With A Heart” inspire
the art students to have hope, dignity, joy, pride, creativity, spirit, and a sense of
their own selves. Images may depict a memory or a dream, an idea in your mind,
may involve human forms or not, may be your visual that comes out the word
“Inspire”. For this suite INprint affiliated with non-profit “Art With A Heart” in Indianapolis.
“Art With A Heart” provides art instruction to low income school children who would
otherwise have no art experiences.

mINnetrista was selected in affiliation with the Minnestrista Cultural Center in
Muncie, Indiana. The word “Minnestrista” is derived from the Sioux “mna”
pronounced “mini” meaning “water,” combined with the English word “tryst”
meaning a meeting or gathering, to form “a gathering place by the water.”

Gallery Hours Monday-Friday 10am-5pm. All prints in the suites are for sale.

For further information on gallery hours, exhibits and artists receptions, see the main web
page for the Coburn Art Gallery or contact the Ashland University Department of
Art (419) 289-5190.

Congrats to our Outstanding Seniors

Congratulations to Lydia McClay who received the Outstanding Senior Exhibition Award and Adam Griffeth who received the Honorable Mention Senior Exhibition Award.

Photos from the Opening Reception 4/23/09

Photos from Senior Art Exhibition I

Ohio All Media Juried Art Exhibition Prospectus

Ohio All Media Juried Exhibition, Coburn Gallery at Ashland University, in Ashland, Ohio. Open to artists who reside in Ohio and are over the age of 18. Works in any media accepted. Works must be original and completed in the last two years. $20.00 entry fee for three works. Entry format: digital jpeg images on CD. Entry deadline June 8, 2009. Mail entries to Cynthia Petry, Ohio-All Media, 401 College Avenue, Ashland, Ohio 44805. Exhibition dates July 26-September 4 2009. Opening reception Sunday July 26th from 2-4 pm. Cash awards: Best in Show $200.00, 3 Merit Awards $100 each and 3 Juror Mention awards. Juror: Marcella Hackburdt who lives and works in Mount Vernon, Ohio. She has taught at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio since 2000, where she is currently an associate professor. Artist is responsible for delivery or shipping of artwork to and from the exhibition. Email cpetry@ashland.edu for questions or more information.

Senior Art Exhibition II

Ashland University Coburn Gallery presents the Senior Art Exhibition II which opens on Thursday April 23rd, with reception from 4:30pm-6:30pm. This is the last senior exhibition for the 2009 gallery season. Featured student artists :

Adam Griffeth

Lydia McClay

Jennifer Kline

John Crum

Tyler Dowdy

Whitney Below