Spiva exhibit to highlight "Mystorical Constructions"

(From Southern News Service)

“Mystorical Constructions,” a printmaking exhibit by artist Michelle Martin, will open Monday, Feb. 24, in Spiva Art Gallery at Missouri Southern State University.

Martin, a professor of art at the University of Tulsa and gallery director of the Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education, will offer a talk from 2 to 3 p.m. Monday, followed by a reception from 3 to 4 p.m.

The exhibit features works that are the result of a unique process – using pre-existing source imagery in a collage/drawing/printmaking hybrid process.

“This process is, as I see it, a form of ‘image sustainability,’ a recycling of past imagery into new forms that combine digital technologies with hand-made processes of etching, sewing, and chine-collé,” Martin said in a statement. “The resulting prints have prompted viewers to wonder not just how they were made, but when – are they historical artifacts or contemporary fictions?

“They encourage in viewers a nostalgia for fairy tales and whimsical stories, and yet they also generate disquieting and open-ended narratives that serve as a form of ‘stealth’ political and social commentary.”

Martin’s works have been shown in more than 220 national and international exhibitions. She has won numerous awards and purchase prizes, including the 2007 Print Prize in the Bradley Print and Drawing Exhibition and the Materials Award during the 2018 Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial.

The exhibit will run through Monday, March 23. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free and open to the public.