St. John's News

A wide range of artistic styles and diverse media― reflecting the Department of Fine Arts’ faculty’s impressive talent—is evident in the Faculty Art Exhibition on view through March 4 at the Dr. M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery in Sun Yat Sen Hall on the Queens campus. Twenty-two faculty members are exhibiting a total of 50 works of art, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and digital art. An artists’ reception will be held on February 15, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The gallery is located in a building that’s a masterpiece of traditional Chinese architecture.

Photo Gallery

The artwork inside is “very high caliber,” says Associate Professor Thomas Kerr, who has several pieces on exhibit, including a charcoal sketch, a pen and ink drawing, and a political illustration about the 2004 Republican Convention in New York, which received a Communication Arts Illustration Award for excellence in editorial art. “It’s a terrific show, and I’m honored to be a part of it” says Kerr, whose political illustrations are distributed through Ink Syndicate to nine newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Newsday.

“The traditional disciplines of painting, printmaking, photography and drawing can be seen alongside works that blur boundaries employing mixed-media approaches, while other works explore digital and more conceptual alternatives,” writes exhibit curator Ross Barbera, Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, in a statement about the show. “A compelling quality of this exhibition is the captivating nature of every piece on display. Whether it is a virtuoso application of painterly brush technique, a precisely executed cryptographic abstraction, a delicately luminous charcoal drawing or the quiet poetry of an intimately lit photograph, the pieces in this show share one thing in common:  They are evocative and expertly executed.”

Internationally Renowned Artists
The Department of Fine Arts’ Faculty Art Exhibition is a tradition at St. John’s University, says Gallery Director Parvez Mohsin, who saw to it that all new lighting was installed for this year’s exhibit. It’s usually held at least once every two years, he says.  “Most of the artists are internationally renowned, and have exhibited in prominent galleries and museums in the U.S. and abroad,” he says. “Many have received grants and fellowships.”

Susan Cottle, adjunct assistant professor, portrays bell towers— inspired from her summers painting in northern Italy—in her colorful gouache (a water-based medium) on paper paintings. “These paintings are composites of what I’ve seen, painted with colors I conceptualized based on my memories of the sites I’ve visited,” she says, adding that she’s also included some Gothic influences from the Czech city of Prague. Cottle, who’s been teaching at St. John’s for nine years, gives classes in life drawing and color theory.

Mary Morris, a Fine Arts faculty member who teaches film, says she likes Cottle’s juxtaposition of greens and reds in her lively colorations. Rocco Mirro, a graphic designer in the University’s Office of Marketing & Communications, and a fine artist whose drawings of religious figures adorn some of the University’s conference rooms, says he’s impressed by the faculty’s high caliber work and admires their well-executed art.

Dan Ault, part-time faculty in the Fine Arts Department, has a 9”x12” acrylic on canvas on exhibit, entitled “19th Century Bohemian.” “I used to work very large,” he says, “but had to scale down my work when I moved to New York.” The work features brightly colored images he makes while doodling. He disperses negative space among them “to balance the busy colors, then separates the positive from the negative images by putting a glossy glaze over the positive and a matt glaze over the negative.” He adds highlights and shadows around the edges to give the images depth. “I’m intrigued by fragmented artifacts that we see in museums,” says Ault, who teaches art history, “and I wanted to give a modern painting a fragmented look.”

‘Opportunity to Show What We Do’
“The art show is our opportunity to show both the students and the university at large what we do,” sums up department head Paul Fabozzi, Associate Professor of Fine Arts. “The faculty is a very accomplished group of artists.”  His own abstract oil paintings in the show are inspired from his long walks in the city, which he takes wearing a pedometer. “I take photos and use the shapes I remember and the distances I’ve walked to help form my composition.” Teaching at St. John’s since 1994, he’s served as the Fine Arts Department Chair since 2004, teaches “Mixed-Media Concerns” and a seminar on contemporary art issues, and co-directs the summer art program in Rome.

The Department of Fine Arts is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and is the only university art program in New York with this credential. There are approximately 100 students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at St. John’s, and they can choose to major in Graphic Design, Illustration, Fine Arts or Photography.

The Faculty Exhibition features the work of these artists: Joseph Adolphe, Elizabeth Albert, Dan Ault, Ross Barbera, Jeffrey Cantela, Susan Cottle, Louis Digena, Heather E. Dunn, Paul Fabozzi, Shoshana Golin, Edward R. Heins, Max Hergenrother, Diane Himmelbaum, Stephanie Jacobson, Thomas Kerr, Belenna M. Lauto, Tom Legaspi, Kathleen Mahoney, Alex Morel, James Pavlicovic, Claudia Sbrissa, and Aaris Sherin.

Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Thursday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Saturday:  12 - 5 p.m.