Second Installation of 'southXeast: contemporary southeastern art'

The University Galleries in Florida Atlantic University's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters presents the final installation of "southXeast: contemporary southeastern art," at the Schmidt Center Gallery, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. The exhibition will open on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. with a performance by Valerie George titled "Dancing with the Ghost of John Cage" which will occur in the Schmidt Center Public Space directly outside the gallery.  The second performance by Billie Grace Lynn, "re-Veal" will occur inside the gallery space. The exhibition will be on view through Thursday, March 27 and all events are free and open to the public.

"southXeast: contemporary southeastern art" is an exhibition featuring emerging and underrepresented mid-career artists from several southeastern states. This is the fourth edition of this exhibition, which has been presented every three years at FAU since 2005. Co-curated by Rod Faulds, University Galleries director, and guest curator Sybille Canthal Welter, the exhibition results from a thorough review of hundreds of artists recommended by curators, critics, past "southXeast" artists and FAU art faculty.

Conceptualist artist Pam Longobardi (Georgia) will install several site-specific pieces and exhibit two correlating paintings from her ongoing works that comment on environmental degradation.  Valerie George (Florida) is presenting experts from "The Archive" that include videos, photographs, and audio visual works based on the year she traveled with her 1983 Mercedes wagon and toured the country as "Nam June Psyche."  These works document her collaborations with other artists and musicians in documenting "the intersection between sound, music and folk history [...], outside the parameters of Popular Music and Culture." 

The work of Florida artist Billie Grace Lynn will showcase her sculptures and include her "Mad Cow Motorcycle, a biodiesel/waste veggie oil-powdered custom motorcycle covered with real cow bones resembling a running cow skeleton."  In the pieces by Tennessee sculptor Greg Pond, the works made from wood, steel, brass, fiberglass and automotive paint demonstrate his interest and exploration of our "culture's attitude towards landscape and the pursuit of utopia."  Figurative painter Toyin Odutola's (Alabama) selected pen and ink drawings focus on identity, specifically the "sociopolitical concept of skin color."  Her work is an extension of being born in Nigeria and growing up in the conservative South.  Georgia photographer Dayna Thacker will exhibit photographic collage and assemblages that reflect her ongoing investigation of patterns seen both within the sacred geometry of Islamic art and String Theory found within the study of physics.

In addition, this exhibition includes a multimedia installation by Miami-based artist Felecia Chizuko Carlisle in the Schmidt Center Gallery Public Space.

The University Galleries at FAU are open to the public Tuesdays through Fridays, from 1 to 4 p.m., and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. Group and class tours are welcome during public hours as well as at other times scheduled by appointment. Galleries exhibitions are sponsored by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. For more information, call 561-297-2661, email galleries@fau.edu or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.