On Aug. 1, 2014, seven School of Art + Art History alumni were featured in Coloring Class, a special one-day exhibition held at the Charles Adams Gallery and various other galleries in the Lubbock Arts District in Lubbock, Texas.
Charles Adam Gallery is home to the Charles Adams Studio Project (CASP), whose mission is to serve as a cornerstone in the Lubbock Arts District by developing and sustaining a working artists' community. The exhibition came about after Chisum Justice and Daniel Ettedgui who live in Lubbock suggested a group show.
“The show was conceived under the premise of shared principals or philosophies of art that serve as a foundation for each one of us,” says Logan Marconi, one of the featured artists. “The show promoted individual work as a group so as to begin creating a platform for us to engage not only with each other’s work but the public as well.”
The seven artists featured in the exhibition—Ettedgui (BFA Art ’11), Andrew Hendrixson (MFA Art ’11), Lauren Hill (MFA Art ’11), Justus (MFA Art ’11), Marconi (MFA Art ’13), Daniel McFarlane (MFA Art ’10) and Nathan Sapio (MFA Art ’12)—met at UF as graduate student painters and bonded during class critiques thanks to a shared intellectual discourse in painting. Now alumni, these young artists still enjoy collaborating together.
“Many people came into the gallery and looked around,” says Marconi. “We all spoke with viewers about our work and the overall exhibition. At the end of the night, I think we all felt proud of what we had brought together and that we had the opportunity to speak directly with the public about our ideas, beliefs and hopes for our work.”
The group is now in the process of putting out more proposals to travel the exhibition, with one possibility for late 2015 or 2016. “Our goal is to keep showing together when we can and to extend our reach to the public via lectures, panel discussions or gallery talks,” says Marconi.
