The Wabash College Art Department presents the opening of Purgatory and Paradise by Xi Zhang and A Man in Search of Meaning by Rudy Pozzatti. The exhibits debut with an opening reception from 4:30-6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 14, in the Fine Art Center’s art wing. Zhang’s exhibit continues through Dec. 7 and Pozzatti’s exhibit continues through Nov. 30.
In Purgatory and Paradise, artist Xi Zhang attempts to awaken a viewer’s compassion through paintings featuring figures in expansive and foreboding landscapes. As a transnational Chinese-born artist working in the United States, Zhang seeks to combine Eastern and Western styles to convey narratives about the global human condition. As he explains, “One of the ways to reduce conflict in the world is to increase empathy. Empathy is not pity. Empathy involves cognitively and emotionally putting one’s own self into another’s circumstances, leading one to see what another sees and feel what another feels. Ideally, empathetic relationships lead to constructive communication and behavior.”
Born in 1984 in Kaifeng, China, Zhang completed his studies in painting at China’s Beijing Institute of Art and Design. He moved to the United States to further his artistic training at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, where he received his BFA in painting in 2008. Zhang’s paintings have been featured in numerous prestigious exhibitions in the U.S., China, and around the world, as well as on CNN, PBS, and NPR.
An Indiana treasure, Rudy Pozzatti is widely regarded as one of America’s great printmakers. For over six decades, he has resided in Bloomington, where he helped build one of the most prestigious printmaking departments in the nation at Indiana University. The works featured in this show come from the Donald L. McMasters ’53 Collection of Wabash College.
Pozzatti’s quest for understanding has carried him across the globe on a journey to capture the essence of humanity in his prints. This exhibit seeks to embody Pozzatti’s vision of what we can learn from the past and present about our human nature and our own desires to explore and learn.
This exhibition is curated by Wabash students Deryk Benge ’18, Derek Fox ’18, Ezequiel Godinez ’18, Preston Hadley ’18, William Shaw ’18, Dajon Thomas ’18, and Robbie Wunderlich ’18. It also features short documentary films about Pozzatti by Kirby Cox ’18, Zachary LaRue ’19, Dallas Pitts ’19, Johnathan Rodriguez ’19, and Louis Sinn ’19. Students are led by Dr. Elizabeth Morton, Wabash Chair of the Art Department.
Both exhibits are free and open to the public and handicap accessible. The hours for the Eric Dean Gallery are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The gallery is closed during Wabash College holidays.