Visual Arts

Weber State’s DOVA

This month in the Higher Education column, we travel north to Ogden and Weber State University. Weber’s Department of Visual Arts (DOVA) has started 2010 with a successful juried student show in their own Shaw Gallery, followed immediately by an art talk with performance artist Angela Ellsworth.|1|Ellsworth was brought in jointly between DOVA and the Central Utah Art Center (CUAC), the most recent collaboration between the two institutions. Even though they are separated by about 150 miles, they have found these collaborations very successful. They alleviate some of the financial pressure on both sides and help increase attendance at both the talks and the shows. CUAC board member Adam Bateman is very enthusiastic about these collaborations and believes they’ll help continue to bring world-class artists to the state of Utah and provide a special opportunity for students at the schools willing to work with the CUAC. He is excited to continue these programs and looks forward to more collaboration this coming fall. If you missed Ellsworth’s lecture, it is available in its entirety on CUAC’s website.

One reason DOVA collaborates so well with the CUAC is that one of their most active faculty members, Matthew Choberka, is on the CUAC board. Choberka started a dedicated Facebook Page for the DOVA so that students (already spending too much time on there anyway) can keep up with events at the DOVA, look for calls for entry, and check out links to current events in the art world that Choberka and other faculty members share. Students can also RSVP for events like the upcoming lecture by San Francisco-based painter, Seth Curcio.|2| The talk is this Thursday, March 4th, and will discuss recent studio, curatorial and publishing projects. Curcio is the founder of the popular art blog, DailyServing.com.

If you are interested in learning more about performance art, local and internationally recognized performance artist Kristina Lenzi currently includes six weeks on the subject in her Studio Art class for non-art majors.|3| She is getting an enthusiastic response from students and hopes to continue the curriculum in the fall. Images of students’ performance pieces can be seen on the DOVA’s Facebook page. Lenzi recently performed two pieces from her “7 Deadly Sins” at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California and is off to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to perform “Clumsy Cakes Returns’ at the Meme Gallery.

Choberka’s work was recently chosen to be included on the Drawing Center’s artist registry and his work, “Position Papers,” can be seen this month at Universe City Gallery in Ogden.|0| Make sure to check it out if you are out and about this Friday on First Friday’s Art Stroll in Ogden.

Another painter and professor at DOVA, William Emerich is enjoying a new situation in his teaching experience.|4| He usually teaches Design: 2D and Drawing I, so rarely sees how his students evolve. But this semester he has had the chance to teach figure drawing and get students from his earlier classes. “I am pleased to see how far they have come. They are starting to take responsibility for their education and are developing into articulate artists.”

Recent graduate Tyler Hackett came to the DOVA as a transfer student when his wife began graduate work at the University of Utah.|5| He chose Weber because he felt a connection to the faculty and department. It was somewhere he “would want to be on a daily basis.” He believes his successful growth as an artist came about because of this connection (and to his first school, Fort Lewis College), and he was very active in his education taking away valuable information from critiques and other subjective discussions. He looks at his BFA as preparation for pursuing an MFA and having a successful career as an artist. Hackett most recently had a solo show at A Gallery and is currently learning to balance being a stay at home dad and full time artist.

Upcoming events at the DOVA will include the 5th Annual Northern Utah High School Art Exhibition in March, and in April, the BFA Thesis exhibit. For current events and to keep up with the DOVA, please check out their Facebook page.

Categories: Visual Arts

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