The Eric Dean Gallery at the Fine Arts Center was lined wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling with some of Wabash men’s finest works of art Monday night, showcasing their remarkable abilities. No doubt months upon months of work had been put into producing the various mediums on display by the senior art majors.
The four artists, all seniors, Dustin Beck, Nic Bitting, Will Clarke, and Philip Ramilo, each exhibited their own individual talents through various means.
Beck’s abstract exhibit carried a reoccurring sequence of three circles, representing three stabilities in his life. It also contained the golden rectangle, giving sense to something that seems to lack any meaning. The use of colors was spectacular; darker colors representing dark parts of his life while the lighter colors the small tribulations we all face. The art took a small amount of time to actually construct, in relation to the time span the events that spawned them took. Beck told the Bachelor, “My favorite part is seeing what type of reaction my works get from the audience; abstraction allows the audience to bring their own experiences to my work and that is when they take on a life of their own.”
Bitting’s focus is one of naturally constructed grandeur. Before entering the gallery, a temporary installation was put in place outside the Fine Arts Center, using small wind-catching sails to paint large bowls. Bitting’s artwork is centered around interaction with the work itself. Nothing is completely free-standing, detached from its environment. One particular piece called for people present to drop rocks in a bowl, eventually spilling colors onto a canvas. Wind, ice, people, and all other players in the natural world have an effect on Bitting’s work, making for one of the most interactive-friendly and interesting pieces in the gallery that night.
Clarke’s canvases were primarily focused on abstract lines and shapes. But texture is also is a factor in the makeup of the piece. Like Bitting’s work, the beauty is not only in the work itself, but also in the process. It becomes evident on closer inspection that the process is an arduous task, and the very expressions that this work proclaims come singing from the strokes of the brush and the forms therein.
The most grappling work comes from Ramilo. With very little observation, it is quite evident that the work that he displays reaches down deep into his inner psyche, and is representative of a very unique and unfamiliar experience. The viewer reaches this psyche through mediums that we reach each other and the outside world: windows, doorways, and archways.
The series “INAY,” as he calls it, attempts to recreate for the viewer a mere tidbit of the experience that was felt by his mother on her deathbed. The images are quite harrowing, with needles, IV bags, and shadowy figures. A stunning and eerie recreation of what the last years of one’s life must feel like.
Professor Huebner of the art department said that the four artists “are not only fine men, but their focus, maturity and responsible dedication to creating their art has made them excellent role models for our art underclassmen art majors to follow.”
Professor Calisch’s words mirrored that of Huebner. “The works are honest, sensitive, skillful, and imaginative. Their statements are thoughtful and provocative.”
Overall, the opening night was a stunning success. Select pieces from the collection are for sale, for those interested. The galleries are open Monday through Friday 9-5 and Saturday 10-2.