The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is presenting a diverse collection of ceramics, drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures and videos by the studio art faculty at Auburn.
The faculty exhibition is Friday at 6 p.m.
Dennis Harper, curator of collections and exhibitions at the museum, is organizing the event.
"The museum organizes an exhibition featuring recent work by the studio art faculty at the Department of Art every three years," Harper said. "We do this in cooperation with the art department and the College of Liberal Arts."
Professors do not have to have a piece of art to display to be part of the presentation, but can conduct lectures at the museum instead.
"All faculty members in the department of art who teach studio classes including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramics and digital media are invited to participate," Harper said. "That includes full professors to adjunct instructors. Art history instructors do not generally include art in the exhibition, but they often participate by lecturing at the museum during the course of the exhibition on their current research."
Andrew Kozlowski, assistant professor of printmaking, will be presenting his Dear Tree Hugger pieces.
"This tree hugger piece came from musing over the question: what if all the horrible things environmentalists say are happening is really true?" Kozlowski said. "Where I lived in Philadelphia, my bus stop used to be a corn field and now it's the corner of a small Mcmansion development."
Chuck Hemard, assistant professor of photography, has a similar inspiration for his work, Bishop Mudpuddle, which he will present in the JCSM auditorium.
"The lecture is on a new body of work where I'm photographically exploring landscapes of cites which have old growth longleaf pine trees," he said.
Hemard explained the longleaf pine's nickname is "the tree that built the South."
"What sparked my interest in that is that Auburn in the school of forestry has a center for the study of the longleaf pine ecosystems," Hernard said. "The longleaf pine ecosystem was the majority of the forest. It covered from Virginia to Texas\0xAD 90 million acres, and now there's less than 3 million. I see it as trying to contribute to an ongoing conversation from the perspective of art."
Hemard's project focuses on subtle changes in nature by photographing one area from 2003 to 2010.
"I hope this work collectively embodies an attempt to listen to the land and reflects on the possibility to define a sense of place in the tireless pace associated with progress in American culture," Hemard said.
Kozlowski also brings nature awareness to the public through his work.
"Certain things feel wrong, so when I make work there's information in it," Kozlowski said. "There is a bit of politics and some of myself in it. This inspiration is why one of my works begins with the beginning of a presidential speech to a tree hugger."
Harper encourages students to come to the faculty show.
"It gives students the opportunity to see the work of their professors who are not only teachers, but active professional artists who practice what they preach," Harper said.
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