Baylor’s Martin Museum opens exhibitions

By Ethan Freije | Staff Writer

Baylor’s Martin Museum of Art opened a two month long exhibition at the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center Tuesday.

Both exhibitions will run until Sept. 25 and are free of charge for all visitors.

The first exhibition, called “Multiplicity,” consists of large works that are put together by many smaller pieces. Each piece adds its own value and contributes to the work of art. Examples of the contributing pieces range from marble rocks to individual paintings, all of which are chapters of the story the artist is telling.

Six artists from around the country will be headlining “Multiplicity.”

Greg Reuter

 

A native of Corpus Christi, Greg is a professor of art at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. He has also lectured in Mexico, Germany, and Japan. His art in Multiplicity consists mostly of objects he found in places such as the Padre Island National Seashore.

Leisa Rich

 

Leisa Rich uses a variety of materials in her sculpting. Her methods include, but are not limited to, sewing, stitching, and 3D printing. She has taught art for over 40 years all over the country, and currently holds exhibits across the globe.

Laurie Weller

Laurie attended the University of Illinois, where she studied painting. She currently lives in Denton, Texas and has been teaching in universities around Texas since 1980. In this exhibit, Weller displays numerous paintings from her past collections. She puts them all together here to create what she calls “Overlay.”

Esteban Delgado

 

Esteban grew up in Bishop, Texas, and studied art at Texas A&M University at Kingsville. He now teaches studio art at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio. His pieces in the exhibition are actually paintings, but their precision and sharpness makes them appear to be print.

Brooke White

 

Brooke specializes in the use of photography and video in her pieces. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally, and she is currently an associate professor of art at the University of Mississippi. In her work, White loves to include memories from her childhood.

“I have always made my work about home,” White said. “It is the root of all my investigations.”

 

Steve Hilton

In addition to being an artist, Steve is a geologist and is fascinated with nature and the earth’s terrain. His work is titled “Black and White,” displayed at “Multiplicity,” consists of 22,000 black and white marbles arranged on the floor to create a landscape.

For anyone interested in meeting the artists, there will be a free reception held at the Martin Museum from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on August 25.

Jennifer Spry, educational coordinator of the Martin Museum, described the commonality behind Multiplicity’s contemporary works.

“All of [Multiplicity’s pieces] have a strong undercurrent of math and science themes,” said Spry. “There’s reflection and translation and symmetry.”

Encore from the Permanent Selection is the second exhibition currently open. It is a sequel to Masters from the Martin Museum, an exhibition that ran during the summer.

“Multiplicity has contemporary artists,” Spry said. “Whereas [Encore] is a lot more about the foundations and the history of art. You are looking at what led up to the contemporary time.”

Here you will find more traditional works by world renowned artists such as Rembrandt, William Hogarth and Goya, among many others. All the pieces in this exhibition belong to the Martin Museum’s permanent collection.

Among many famous artists that Encore displays, Spry is extremely excited about one artist in particular.

“This is the debut of out Ansel Adams that we just acquired. We are really proud of it,” Spry said. “A lot of people don’t realize just how much they benefited from [Adams]. You probably wouldn’t even have a camera on your smart phone if it wasn’t for him.”

Allison Syltie, director of the Martin Museum, believes these exhibitions have something to offer for students of every background.

“Look at what we’ve discussed here today. We’ve talked about World War Two, we’ve talked about printmaking processes. We’ve hit a wide array of issues,” Syltie said. “There’s a lot to be learned through art that you may not have learned in the classroom.”

Both exhibitions offer a myriad of times for students and other visitors to stop by. On Tuesdays–Fridays, they are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturdays they will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. They will run until Sunday, Sept. 25.