Every three years, the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum mounts the School of Art and Art History faculty exhibition. This show, with the last of the longtime painting faculty heading for retirement, is more than an exhibition; it marks a changing of the guard. Retirees include powerhouse painting professors Mernet Larsen, Bruce Marsh, Jeffrey Kronsnoble and Theo Wujcik, all with phenomenal staying power, some holding USF teaching jobs since the 1960s. All have made their mark on a generation of art students. Several may continue as adjuncts. Kronsnoble is halfway through a five-year phase-out retirement program. This means we may very well end up seeing the work of these retirees in subsequent faculty shows.
Art Department chairman Wallace Wilson describes the process of rebuilding the painting faculty as "like starting from scratch."
Yet this strong show also demonstrates another noticeable shift that's been in progress for some time: the steady infusion of faculty focused on photography and electronic media. The faculty's transformation also includes new hires and visiting artists with greater ethnic and religious diversity. One example is Nigerian-born, American-educated visiting professor Odili Donald Odita, currently receiving national and international attention.
Here are some exhibition highlights, beginning with the painters:
Marsh's striking entry, "Ingres in Port Tampa," a large oil on linen, is well deserving of its place of honor on CAM's main lobby wall. Marsh, named Best Painter in our recent Best of the Bay issue, describes this third in a series as another perceptual exercise. (We saw the first, "Ingres on Hillsborough Avenue," in 1999.) But he also suggests the viewer should go beyond "quick readings." Indeed, this painting is a perfect example of deconstruction, meaning the viewer gets to complete the visual narrative.
In a painstaking process, Marsh appropriates the elegantly garbed woman from French painter Ingres' 1851 painting, "Madame Messonier." He ages her, but the expressionless stare remains the same and her gaze is still fixed on the viewer. She stands before an abandoned shipping pier, presumably in present day. It's a postmodern juxtaposition suggesting intriguing contrasts, like history versus modernity's industrial-age spinoffs. Aside from any cerebral focus, the provocative work is aesthetically appealing; the dark of the dress against the monochromatic blue-ish black background is gorgeous.
Kronsoble's "September 11th," one of his best works to date, also crosses boundaries of time and space. Given the cataclysmic subject matter of an exploding and collapsing World Trade Center, stunningly juxtaposed against a sunny pastoral field and horses, the result is a Kronsnoble with a lot more passion than I ever expected to see. He also successfully enhances the oil painting's tension; we're really not sure if his fenced-off field ultimately offers escape or alerts us that no escape exists at all.
Wujcik, awarded a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship 2001-02, continues his series of scrambled and meticulously reassembled pop-culture puzzles. With two paintings in the show, the more complex and richly designed "Lifestyles of the Rich and Faye-Moose/Rendezvous," featuring flowers and fruit, reads as if it were a parodic tribute to Martha Stewart's homey talents.
Larsen, well respected for intellectually challenging work, doesn't disappoint in this exhibition. Two paintings continue her exploration of artificially constructed figurative subjects. In each, pairs of emotionless beings sport flattened limbs and boxlike bodies that act out mechanically within illogical spaces. They suggest Larsen has a passion for sculpture, but her inspiration is apparently Italian Renaissance painter Piero Della Francesca, whose painted figures were also sculptural and motionless. We see this clearly in Larsen's "The Handshake," where two tall figures greet each other within a claustrophobic hallway. Despite her cerebral interests, the painter, who heads the MFA program, is more interested in subtle textural effects and a handmade look than the other painters are.
At the other end of the spectrum are Diane Elmeer's emotionally and psychologically-infused, voyeuristic paintings of figures acting out scenarios in rooms resembling stage-sets. The former assistant Art Department chair, and another retiree, is represented by "Mr. Spencer's Fingers," a sexually charged oil on canvas. Warm color is used beautifully to minimize the threat of lost innocence within a space reminiscent of the late Hollis Sigler's intimate interiors.
Two young artists exploring their own life experiences also touch on national and international issues, though in totally disparate ways.
Romanian-born Rozalinda Borcila, who joined the faculty in 1999, addresses barriers to the naturalization process, an outgrowth of her own journey toward American citizenship. Her multichannel video installation, "Naturalization Project (Installment #7)," includes two small television screens. On one, Borcila and her Romanian grandmother discuss the merits of staying in Romania versus catching an American husband. The other documents a confrontational conversation between the artist and Netherlands customs officials denying her permission to enter or leave the country. In an unusual twist for conceptually based art, Borcila flashes text across the screens, enabling viewers to grasp the separate narratives. The clarity, both of the artist's message and the visual presentation, makes these videos some of the best I've seen.
By contrast, visiting photography professor Nzingah Muhammad is represented by three images rooted in studio portraiture. They illustrate a unique and intensely personal struggle. The Brooklyn native, a Muslim, is the daughter of an African-born, polygamous father, and she grew up with multiple mothers, a situation that generates extraordinary cultural conflicts. In "Red Fingernails," the artist's head and face are covered in traditional white, while her fingers, tipped with the red nails, are extended in a powerful and defiant gesture.
Elsewhere, ceramicist Ed Ross also speaks with defiance, reminding us of the university's place in political issues. "Ship of State," a beautifully crafted boat with skeletal-like parts, is installed in the lobby where he hopes to initiate dialogue about the state of American democracy. He writes, "As a human being and a patriot, I cannot be silent while our constitution is dismantled and our government is sold to the highest corporate bidder."
Many of the remaining artists are showing some of their best work. I don't have enough space to discuss all, but I must mention Christopher Weeks' beautifully mounted digital prints, Victoria Hirt's giclee feminist prints, Charles Lyman's wry self-portrait in digital Polaroid and Bradley Shanks' screenprints.
Last, though chairs hold iconic status as art world subjects, none could be more poignantly installed than sculpture professor Thom McLaughlin's collaborative tribute to the late Tampa architect Jan Abell. The chair, together with Abell's lamp, table, and a book of personal memories contributed by friends, reminds us, despite the university tradition of being cutting edge, that art has the power to heal.
Adrienne M. Golub can be reached by e-mail at adrienne.golub@weeklyplanet.com.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2002.