Exhibitions

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

NO ORDINARY LAND
June 4 – July 30, 2004

No Ordinary Land; Encounters in a Changing Environment.
The exhibit features large-scale color photographs by Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee who explore the ways people interact with the landscapes in which they live. For over ten years, they have worked in collaboration creating a powerful visual map of how the natural world- shapes–and is reshaped by–human behavior. Photographing locations as diverse as Sri Lanka and Iceland, Costa Rica and New York, they have captured enduring moments where history, geology and myth coalesce. Aperture, a not-for-profit organization devoted to photography and the visual arts, has organized this traveling exhibition and produced the accompanying publication. CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

ABANDON
June 4 – July 30, 2004

Abandon; a visual representation of externalized and internalized space, is an exhibition of black and white photography by Canadian artist Phyllis Wharton. Her images depict the artifacts of our post-industrial landscape. Ansel Adams wrote in The Camera that a picture becomes a photograph when it conveys a sense of experience over place. "My work is largely narrative in nature. I come from a long line of storytellers; consequently, I seek to convey a sense of what has happened and how these places have been touched by human experience."

Abandon, the current show, embraces the absence of human presence yet challenges the viewer to unearth evidence of their stories, emotional connectedness, and desires. Through even the darkest images, minimal light, its tension, rhythm, and movement, emerge to reveal the human hand implicit in what will become.

AN UNFINISHED JOURNEY EXPLORING THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
June 4 – July 30, 2004

During the months of June and July Toni Armeni, the Museum’s second REA+CH artist in residence, will work with local scholars and area youth to develop an art installation based on the Underground Railroad. As YSU has been named an affiliate of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, we hope to expand public awareness of the University’s commitment to the development of human liberty in its role as Northeast Ohio’s Freedom Station. The public is invited to observe and share in the progress of this project as it unfolds in the ground level galleries of the Museum beginning in early June.

UPCOMING EXIBITIONS

ALUMNI EXHIBITION
September 11 - October 8, 2004

In keeping with its mission and programmatic commitments, the Museum’s schedule of exhibitions continues to offer insights into the quality of arts education at Youngstown State University. Along with our annual Graduating Senior Shows and Biennial Faculty Exhibitions we are pleased to announce that the much loved and long awaited Alumni Exhibition will take place September 11-October 8, 2004. Bill Mullane, will jury the exhibition and working closely with the members of the Museums Advisory Committee and the Alumni Association we are planning a celebration that will honor Department of Art graduates and over thirty years of arts education at YSU.

If you would like to participate and have not recieved information or entry forms in the mail you can read more about eligibility and how to enter here. The deadline is July 23, 2004.

Schedule for the 2004 Alumni Exhibition            Printer friendly forms

IN THE LAND OF NOD: 6 NEW YORK PROJECTS
October 22 – November 19, 2004

Following the Alumni exhibition, The McDonough Museum will partner with Caren Golden, owner of Caren Golden Fine Art in New York City, to exhibit the work of 6 young artists living and working in New York. This exciting group of individuals, offer cacophonous and often humorous views of popular culture and everyday life.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

SLEIGHT OF HAND
February 27 - March 26, 2004

The impetus for gathering this marvelous group of artists together under the exhibition title, Sleight of Hand, came from discovering some years ago, the work of Piero Fornasetti. Fondly referred to as the “designer of dreams,” Fornasetti lived and worked in Milan, Italy from 1935 until his death in 1988. He was an artist, illustrator, printer, graphic designer, craftsman, and manufacturer, who imbued the objects of quotidian life with wit, historicism, nostalgia and the mystery of the art of the conjurer’s magical illusion.
Presenting work that follows this tradition of excellence and ingenuity, these six artists add contemporary metaphors that elicit perceptual twists of materials and meaning.
The fourth exhibition in the Museum's Regional Projects Series. CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

BIENNIAL FACULTY EXHIBITION
September 12 - October 3, 2003

Biennial Faculty Exhibition
A selection of works in various media by Studio Art Faculty in the Department of Art at Youngstown State University

ANNUAL REGIONAL SCHOLASTIC ART AWARDS EXHIBITION
January 25 - February 14, 2003
January 24 – February 13, 2004

Each year the McDonough Museum presents The Annual Scholastics Exhibition. The Northeastern Ohio Regional Scholastic Art Awards includes students grades 7-12 from Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties. The 2002 program is comprised of 95 art educators from 80 participating schools and included over 800 works of art displayed at the Museum.

Scholastic Awards Program
The regional exhibition is juried according to national standards and standards set by the regional executive committee. The jurors choose gold key, silver key, American Vision awards (best of show) and special regional awards. The awards program takes place at the Butler Institute of American Art.The annual Scholastic Program is sponsored by The William Swanston Charitable Foundation.

GRADUATING SENIOR SHOW I, II
December 5 - December 19, 2003
May 7 - May 21, 2004

Graduating Senior Shows I & II
Art Department seniors graduating in the Fall and Spring exhibit work in the Museum’s galleries as their final project. All galleries

68TH ANNUAL STUDENT SHOW
April 9 - April 23, 2004

The Annual Student Show is a juried competition open to all students enrolled in the College of Fine and Performing Arts.

SOLIDARITY FOREVER! GRAPHICS OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR MOVEMENT
May 2 – July 31, 2003

A Poster Exhibition from the Center for Political Graphics, Los Angeles
"Organized labor has consistently produced more political graphics than any other domestic movement for social change. Labor posters are often produced in the midst of a strike or boycott and convey the urgency of the times. Others are commemoratives, marking the anniversary of a victory or a martyred labor leader." For more information go to www.politicalgraphics.org

SONG OF SONGS
February 27 – March 21, 2003

Paintings by Cuban Artist Maydelina Perez Lezcano

BREATHING ROOM
January 16 – February 14, 2003

An installation by Video Artist Claudia Esslinger
The artist’s interest in medical metaphors, references of illness, healing and most significantly breathing, are related directly to her immediate
life experiences and those of many individuals who suffer from
shortness of breath.

FIVE FIGURATIVE VISIONS
October 17 - November 22, 2002

Five Figurative Visions is an exhibition of 5 painters from Ohio who use the body as both form and subject. The exhibition included Robert Rack, George Danhires, Dean Shaffer, Daniel Dove, and Tricia Kaman and was guest curated by Margo Miller who is an artist living in Akron, Ohio. All galleries

SPROCKETS VIDEO & PERFORMANCE SPACE
September 5 - October 4, 2002

Changing programs in video and performance art

CHINA LEVELS OF DISCERNMENT; THE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN BEIJING
September 5 - October 4, 2002

The second exhibition in the Museum's Regional Projects Series. CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

OVERFLOW
February 27 - March 21, 2003

The third exhibition in the Museum's Regional Projects Series. CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

SHRINES TO THE HILL & LETTERS OF EARTH
September 5 – October 4, 2002

An installation by Russell Ferguson
Ferguson, a bricoleur, endeavors to make the materials he works with take on shapes, configurations and forms as well as multiple meanings and double purposes: functional, structural, formal, and metaphorical.