The Department of Art and Design’s annual Homecoming Exhibition is featured in the Stevens Art Gallery until Monday, Oct. 23. The exhibition features work of various media created by Harding art and design faculty, alumni and students.
Dr. John Keller, professor of art and curator of the exhibit, selected the artists and collection of work for the show. According to Keller, most of the faculty who teach fine art courses are represented, along with a select few alumni and students, both underclassmen and upperclassmen. Keller said this group of artists was chosen due to their reputations of producing quality work.
“We selected students who we felt were strong students, and we selected alumni who had a track record for doing strong work,” Keller said. “There’s just a lot of others we could have selected, but obviously we are limited on space.”
Among the five students selected is senior Lawson Belcher, who, according to Keller, is “an extremely talented and humble individual.”
Belcher was recommended for the show by Assistant Professor of Art Beverly Austin, and now has two of his oil paintings in the show: a self-portrait and a landscape.
“It is just very special to be represented in the same room as some incredible artists,” Belcher said. “Art and design professors — and a lot of students for that matter — are pretty humble; they show their skill through their work, not by their words. To be in the same show as such talented artists is definitely an honor.”
Among the four art and design alumni represented is alumni Brandon Rickett who graduated in May of 2017. Rickett chose two pieces for the show that he feels are representative of his style and voice as an artist.
“They also kind of represent my time as an art student here and kind of the style that I began exploring and how I utilized the surrounding landscapes,” Rickett said.
Rickett, who now lives in Little Rock, and works in an art gallery, said he was excited to be featured in this exhibition.
“I think it’s an honor to get to show some work again in a setting that helped equip me for my career as an artist, so it’s kind of coming back to your roots in a sense,” Rickett said. “There are so many amazing artists who are a part of this show, so I think it’s an honor to have my work next to theirs. They’re alumni who I admired as a student here, so it has sort of come full circle.”
For Keller, this show is always an important one because it gives the department an opportunity to showcase their past and present talent while alumni are on campus for Homecoming.
“Typically (alumni) want to see work of people they know,” Keller said. “In this case, it will be people they’ve studied under or people who have been here at school in the past as well as our current students, so it connects with alumni on three different levels.”
The Homecoming Exhibition will be up in the Stevens Art Gallery until Monday, Oct. 23. It will be followed by the Art and Design Sophomore Portfolio Review.
