Works in a variety of media by Troy artist Melinda McDaniel and Atlanta-based Lucha Rodriguez make up “Light and Loud,” the newest exhibit in the Crowell and West galleries in the Feigenbaum Center for Visual Arts.
The two-person show opens Thursday, Jan. 16, with a public reception from 4 to 6 p.m. and artist talk at 4:45 p.m.
Providing an overview in the exhibit catalog, writer Kerin Sulock states that in each artist’s body of work, there exists an organic beauty marked by distortion that seeks to challenge viewers’ sensual pleasures and perceptions. The lush, enticing environments are also dystopic universes in which “we discover a grotesque beauty,” a world tarnished by human violence and interference.
The 15 works by McDaniel include diminutive stoneware sculptures; cast stoneware on painted wooden panels; and a sculpture series titled “Subscription,” featuring towers of consumer magazines held together with cable ties and hot glue.
Rodriguez is represented by 10 of her watercolor-on-paper “knife drawings,” which are “meant to represent the union between precision and intuition; organic and geometric; simplicity and complexity.”
McDaniel teaches in the Art + Design Department at Russell Sage College. She grew up in Florida, inspired by endless light and the visual overload of Walt Disney World. She holds a BFA in studio art from Florida State University and an MFA in photography from The Ohio State University.
Her work has been exhibited at SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh, the Governors Island Art Fair in New York, the BRIC Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
Rodriguez was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Her artwork mimics intricate patterns found in the human body while exploring ideas of abstraction, replication and separation. Though most recognized for her site-specific paper installations, she also has experimented with copper, textiles, paint, plexiglass and sound.
She has exhibited in solo and group shows internationally, and her work is included in Atlanta’s High Museum of Art as well as private, institutional and individual collections.
“Light and Loud” runs through Feb. 28.