Faculty Art Exhibit Jan. 18-March 8

The annual DAAP College Faculty Exhibition, presented by the college of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, is an opportunity for faculty to express themselves in their unique approaches to art whether it's a painting, sculpture or an innovative DVD installation. It's all about art, in its purest form.

The exhibit will be hosted in the Edwards Center Gallery, located on the sixth floor of One Edwards Center. A preview reception 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, provides a chance to meet faculty exhibitors. The show begins Friday, Jan. 18, and will run through March 8. It features artists from various DAAP disciplines, including architecture, fashion design, fine arts and planning.

The show is a two-fold event: a prime opportunity for faculty to display their intriguing works and an opportunity for students and the general public to experience art from the faculty's perspective. The gallery was designed to be a unique forum in which to learn and experience the diversity of art. "It's an educational space," says gallery manager Gabriele Abowd.

An impressive variety of works will be featured, ranging from a state-of-the-art CD-ROM virtual reality tour of Seaside Florida by Professor Karen Monzel to a unique earthenware clay and sand hand sculpture created by ceramics instructor Kirk Mayhew. A 13-piece collection of oil on canvas paintings, in assorted animal prints such as zebra, giraffe and tiger by Fillis Hagi Zaid, adjunct faculty member in fashion design, is titled "Urban Jungle" and relates to the animal world, says Zaid.

A distinctive dining chair and side table called "The Furnished House" was designed by Jim Postell, associate professor of architecture. The furniture is sleekly crafted from Baltic Birch plywood and cherry maple enhanced with black neoprene, a durable synthetic rubber. These formal pieces are actually a study in geometry and symbolize his love for design and building.

With opening the Edward Center Gallery last spring, it is now one of three exhibition spaces that UC utilizes for its fine arts collections and training of graduate students in gallery operation and collection management. The others are the Reed Gallery located in the DAAP Aronoff Center at UC and the DAAP Galleries Downtown on Fourth Street.

For Abowd, who is fairly new to the university and working on her Masters in Art Education, this gallery presents a chance for her to get acquainted with DAAP. It's also a challenging learning environment. "I'm learning the physical aspect of hanging and handling artwork and how to care for it, organizing a show and all the nitty gritty things like setting up a reception and paperwork." Responsibilities can be overwhelming, yet rewarding when everything falls into place.

"I am learning a lot of tricks of how an exhibit comes together," says Abowd of her assistantship as manager, but also realizes the personal satisfaction from installing an exhibit and watching it breathe life.