McDaniel exhibition opens in Sangren Hall
Oct. 13, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- Visiting artist Craig McDaniel is doing a painting installation, "One Night in the Forest," in Gallery II of Sangren Hall at Western Michigan University from Oct. 14 to Nov. 13. Gallery II is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
McDaniel will give a slide lecture titled, "One Night in the Forest," at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 14, in room 1213 of Sangren Hall. A reception with the artist will follow in Gallery II. McDaniel's exhibition and slide lecture are free and open to the public.
Craig McDaniel was one of a select group of artists from within a radius of 150 miles that was featured in last year's Fort Wayne Art Museum Biennial. There he exhibited an unusual installation of paintings which are actually groups of paintings joined together to create a single piece. His exhibit here was produced this past summer and continues that style.
McDaniel says, "All the works in the show will be what I call 'rebaphors,' a combination of visual and verbal imagery (as in a 'rebus'), but in my case the visual images are not meant to be translated into a single word (as in a traditional rebus), but the images function as metaphors with multiple levels of meaning. The entire exhibit explores the potential of paintings to function simultaneously on the level of formal composition, representation, narrative, and meta-narrative."
McDaniel became chair of the Fine Arts Department in the Herron School of Art at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis this summer. Previously, he was a professor at Indiana State University in Terre Haute since 1988. He has an M.F.A. degree in painting and drawing from Ohio State University and an M.F.A. degree in English and creative writing from the University of Montana. These parallel interests continue today and inform his painting style.
While actively exhibiting his art over the years, McDaniel has held a wide range of positions in arts administration prior to settling into higher education. He was founding director of the Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center, Portsmouth, Ohio; and Curator of Performing Arts at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wis.
McDaniel has had solo and featured exhibits at the Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Ft. Wayne Museum of Art; Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago; Indiana University School of Fine Arts Gallery, Bloomington; and the South Bend Regional Art Museum, among others. He received the Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Project Grant in 2001-02 and a Clowes Fellowship for a month-long residency at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vt, in 2001.
Gallery II hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The public is invited to attend and there is easy access for the handicapped. Gallery II and the School of Art are part of the College of Fine Arts and are located in Sangren Hall. For additional information, contact the Exhibitions Office at 269-387-2455.
Media contact: Jackie Ruttinger, 269 387-2455, jacquelyn.ruttinger@wmich.edu