Whether or not art becomes their full-time vocation after graduation, current DU art students are likely to find plenty of motivation at the 2010 Juried Alumni Exhibition, opening Sept. 30 in the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery in the Shwayder Art Building.
“Some of the artists [in the show] are professional artists, some are teachers and some do something completely different,” says Dan Jacobs, DU art curator and Myhren Gallery director. “That’s an important message, that to continue to make art is something they should consider, regardless of whether they do it professionally or not.”
The show features work by 19 artists who attended DU, ranging from recent graduates to people who attended the University in the 1950s and 1960s. It includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics and new media. In addition to the main gallery show, an “in memoriam” exhibit spotlights work by late artists and alumni Roy Klein, Peter Dulan and Philip Perdew. A separate show titled False Reparation presents works by faculty members Catherine Chauvin (printmaking) and Mia Mulvey (ceramics).
Jacobs says the function of the alumni show, which happens every three years, is twofold — it’s a way to share with current students, local art lovers and campus at large the accomplishments of DU art grads, but it’s also a way for the School of Art and Art History to connect with its past.
“One of the interesting things about our situation, which is paralleled all over campus, is that it’s actually been challenging to find out who our alumni were,” he says. “All the trials and tribulations that the University went through financially up until the late 1980s, early 1990s, led to some record-keeping issues. There were some legacy issues with older records systems that didn’t really make the transition.
“This is one of the tools that we use to reconnect with our alumni and to try to create a community of alumni,” Jacobs adds. “It’s really fun that way — usually at the openings for these types of event I will encounter one or two alumni who will give me the names of some of their classmates.”
This year the alumni exhibition also is a vehicle to showcase recent developments at DU’s School of Art and Art History. Painting and drawing classes started this summer in the new Nagel Art Studio, a 12,500-square-foot structure located between Shwayder and the Ritchie Center. (The building will be dedicated Oct. 19.) Shwayder’s third floor has become a digital playground for DU’s program in electronic media arts design. Warhol in Colorado opens Jan. 20 in the Myhren Gallery and is sure to be one of 2011’s most-talked-about exhibits in Denver. It includes a collection of Polaroids by Andy Warhol, plus silkscreens, paintings, album covers and more by the famed pop artist.
“There have been a lot of positive developments over the past few years,” Jacobs says, “but this is really the point at which we can celebrate that in a more public way and a more obvious way.”
2010 Juried Alumni Exhibition opens with a reception from 5–8 p.m. Sept. 30. The exhibit runs through Nov. 21; regular hours are noon–4 p.m. daily. Admission is free. For more information, visit myhrengallery.wordpress.com/exhibitions.
Ed. Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the day the exhibit opens. The story currently reflects an accurate start date for the exhibition.