The Grace College School of Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce the new site-specific installation, “Shifting Paradigms” by Dr. Samantha Jones. Presented by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, the installation will feature an antique frame from the Mount Memorial art collection interacting with visual texture created by layers of ethereal dyed silk gauze. The show will be on display Wednesday, Aug. 20, through Thursday, Oct. 16, in the Art Gallery on the garden level of Mount Memorial Hall, 1 Lancer Way, Winona Lake. Jones will give an artist talk in the Mount Memorial Art Gallery on Friday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m. The community is invited to attend the free reception from 7-9 p.m.
As a materials-based installation artist, Jones lives in the coastal woods of Maine. She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Art and an MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Her dissertation, “Wild Care: A Vital Surrealist Inquiry on Loss in the Wood,” considers new and vital etho-ecologies within the philosophy of aesthetics.
In her artistic practice, Jones considers one’s relationship to creation as an artistic process that embeds practice and place, and the human relationship to change.
“To create is to make change happen, and it is also to embrace change,” said Jones. “This exhibit presents a space where space itself is not static, requiring one to negotiate one’s place in the vastly complex and perpetually shifting landscape in which we find ourselves. Job 38:14 provides a visual metaphor between the earth’s intricate features transformed in the morning light and the color fixing to the landscape as dyes are fixed to a garment. As I consider this conversation between the Lord and Job, I am humbled by the beautiful shifting coastlines of Maine and Europe. My work becomes a tangible expression of this reflection on the ever-changing natural wonders of God’s creation.”
“Samantha’s work beautifully embodies the intersection of art history, faith and ecology,” said Dr. Kim M. Reiff, dean of the School of Arts & Humanities. “While contemplating space and the interplay of light and abstracted color, the current installation invites the viewer to consider the history of landscape painting and our relationship to change. Her creative inspiration is revealed through the varying intensities of color, movement of light through the space and the textural dimensions of this work.” Jones is an adjunct assistant professor of art at the University of Maine, Orono. She has participated in residencies including the Worm Farm Institute in Wisconsin, Vermont Studio Center in Vermont, Pinea Linea De Costa in Rota, Spain and the International Center for the Arts in Monte Castello Di Vibio, Italy. She is represented by Amos Eno Gallery in New York City.
This will be the first of six art exhibits that will be hosted in Grace’s newly remodeled Art Gallery space on the Garden Level of Mount Memorial. The exhibit is open to all without charge through Thursday, Oct 16. Art Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 8-5 p.m. For more information, call the Grace College Department of Visual and Performing Arts at 574-372-5100 ext. 6258 or email artgallery@grace.edu. The exhibit is ADA-accessible.
