Alumni are in the spotlight next month in the Texas Woman’s University galleries.
Painter Joseph Melancon, an alumnus of the TWU Master of Fine Arts program, will open a solo show Tuesday in the West Gallery. Meanwhile, the East Gallery in TWU’s art building will have a group show of TWU alumni — Sunny Jacquet, Penny Bisbee, Mark Collop, Tim Harding, Tammy Wascovich and Leigh Ann Williams.
Melancon is a Florida artist with roots in Louisiana and a graduate art education at TWU. He works primarily in acrylics, looking at his art as a sort of personal archaeology that is more playful than serious.
Melancon works in expressive realism, sometimes bringing three-dimensional objects into his painting to merge the subconscious and the observed.
Bisbee and Jacquet have each stirred the imaginations of viewers and critics with their thoughtful compositions — Bisbee with her figures falling pell-mell through colorful views, Jacquet by using plump, audacious pears as metaphors in her design-oriented still works.
Collop, on the other hand, injects both the humorous and the absurd into his installations, which make use of cartoon-like objects and familiar settings to catch viewers’ attention. Wascovich explores portraits on an expansive scale, and Williams works in bold brush strokes.
Melancon will give a lecture about his work at 4 p.m. Tuesday, with an opening reception for all of the artists at 5 p.m.
— Lucinda Breeding
ART BY ALUMNI
• What: An exhibit of paintings by Joseph Melancon, and a group show of works by TWU alumni
• When: Both shows open Tuesday and run through Oct. 26. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
• Where: East and West galleries on the first floor of the TWU Fine Arts Building, located at Oakland Street and Pioneer Circle
• Details: Admission is free.
• On the Web: www.twu.edu/visual-arts
