EGRESS
Michael and Noémi Neidorff Art Gallery Trinity University Senior Art Major Exhibition
EGRESS April 29 - May 22, 2021 Trinity University Senior Art Major Exhibition Michael and Noémi Neidorff Gallery Featuring: Stella Luck Skylr McCormick-Isom Kate Nuelle Bella Peters Stephen Sumrall-Orsak Cole Warner
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FOREW0RD
CONTENTS
FOREW0RD FOREWORD Page 7
STELLA LUCK Page 8
SKYLR MCCORMICK-ISOM Page 10
KATE NUELLE Page 14
BELLA PETERS Page 18
STEPHEN SUMRALL-ORSAK Page 22
COLE WARNER Page 26
CATALOGUE Page 30
INSTALLATION IMAGES Page 34
The work of the six young artists in EGRESS is noteworthy for its uniqueness; in style, content, subject matter, and material, the show coheres in the striking individuality of its parts. This is work that speaks to a year of isolation, sadness, monotony, and fear. It was created by students working without the artistic influences and interactions of normal, communal studio practice.
I also acknowledge the invaluable assistance of my colleagues and staff in the Department of Art and Art History, especially Gallery Manager Benjamin McVey for his steadfast oversight every step of the way, Department Chair Kate Ritson, and Office Manager Denise Wilson.
Yet the creative energies that sparked this work speak powerfully. These young artists share a commitment to craft, to careful and skilled making, and to beauty, which unifies the exhibition and intimates hopeful possibilities head. EGRESS proposes our emergence from a dark time of uncertainty into the light of a more promising future. It has been my privilege and pleasure to work with these students throughout their senior year, be it virtually on Zoom or live in the studio. We began the Fall and Spring semesters not knowing if a real show in the gallery would even be possible, so it is especially gratifying to see such a strong exhibition in the Neidorff Gallery this year. I therefore acknowledge the courage, resourcefulness, cooperation, and resilience of the Trinity University senior art majors of 2021.
- ELIZABETH WARD, PROFESSOR Department of Art and Art History
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STELLA LUCK
STELLA LUCK BIO Stella Luck is a senior at Trinity University, majoring in art and Spanish. Luck was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and spent the majority of her formative years on Lady Bird Lake. Luck draws inspiration from a variety of sources, particularly her experience growing up in a queer household and her own queer identity. The catalyst for her multimedia artistic journey was an interest in film photography, which gradually led her to printmaking, then ceramics, then fibers.
ARTIST STATEMENT My work in EGRESS is an abstracted exploration of my identity as a donor-conceived person. The recurring number in these pieces is my anonymous donor’s ID number, and the barcodes are a commentary on the fertility industry and the way in which gametes, and subsequently people, are reduced to products for profit. The materiality of these pieces is intended to function as an allegory for DNA.
Clockwise from top left: Genetic Study 1, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 20” x 20” Genetic Study 2, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 23” x 20’” Genetic Study 3, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 24 ½” x 15 ½” Genetic Study 4, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 19” x 18”
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Skylr McCormick-Isom
SKYLR MCCORMICK-ISOM BIO Skylr McCormick-Isom was born in Overland Park, Kansas, and lived in the Nevada mountains before moving to Austin, Texas. She’s been studying art and psychology at Trinity for the past four years, and has dreams of going to graduate school to become an art therapist. Her paintings often incorporate figures and elements of landscapes drawn from her time living by the Truckee River in Nevada. These paintings are abstract representations of concepts such as self-discovery and selfawareness. She creates art as a means of self-exploration, and intends on continuing to do so in her future endeavors.
ARTIST STATEMENT My art explores narratives that take place within my own mind. I often incorporate figures into abstract landscapes drawn from my childhood memories. Some of my paintings emerge from the internal concepts I carry about myself and my life, or they can also be understood as abstract visible embodiments of how I’m feeling at the time I’m making the work. The series I’ve made for EGRESS represents the road to self discovery through confronting the ego, or the voice in one’s head. When one acknowledges that conversations in their heads are conversations with themselves, they can further accept themselves and see their needs and desires more clearly. Each painting depicts a different conversation with the ego in the landscape of the mind.
Above: Conversations with the Ego I, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30”
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Skylr McCormick-Isom
Left: Conversations with the Ego II, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 30” x 24” Above: Conversations with the Ego III, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30”
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KATE NUELLE
KATE NUELLE BIO Kate Nuelle is a Trinity University senior double majoring in art and art history. She was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Coming of age alongside the commercialization of the web, she took an interest in the structure of the digital platforms that shape our everyday lives. Using photography, illustration, graphic design, and video, she engages with the power wielded by technology companies and the cultural impacts of the Internet.
ARTIST STATEMENT I create digital photographs and designs that address the transformation of society due to the pervasiveness of digital technology. My work invites audiences to reconsider how the internet affects their moods, viewpoints, and relationships. Simultaneously, I coax the viewer to consider the ethics and legality of how companies use the web to gather personal data and affect human behavior. My works create an eerie atmosphere that reflects the voyeuristic practices of digital platforms, as they mine information about their users and monetize human attention. I speculate a future where the power of companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon remain unchecked by government oversight.
Right: Better Than You Know Yourself, 2021 Risograph on paper Three pieces: 7 ¾” x 3, 10 x 2 ¾”, 9 x 3”
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KATE NUELLE
From left: Our Main Competitor Is Sleep I, 2021 Inkjet print on archival paper 64” x 44” Our Main Competitor Is Sleep II, 2021 Inkjet print on archival paper 64” x 44” Our Main Competitor Is Sleep III, 2021 Inkjet print on archival paper 64” x 44”
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BELLA PETERS
BELLA PETERS BIO Bella Peters (b. Yokota AB, Japan) is in the final semester of her studies at Trinity University. She will be graduating with a BA in psychology and studio art and an arts, letters, and enterprise minor. While in the art department she has focused on developing her work in drawing. EGRESS is Bella’s second exhibition, her first was The Mini; also in the Neidorff Art Gallery, in 2021.
ARTIST STATEMENT My artwork is inspired by personal experiences, nightmares, and doodles. The series on view in EGRESS focuses on the consequences of grief after the loss of loved ones. I use charcoal, in combination with acrylics and chalk pastels, to explore these concepts. The variety of mediums leads to interesting interactions and textures, from blurred passages to fine detail. I value intuition and imagination while occasionally using playful logic within the pieces. The surreal and the fantastical often collide, as I apply grey tones alongside soft colors or combine delicate imagery with emotionally dark undertones. As viewers walk away from my pieces, my intention is for them to feel both haunted and hopeful, having to explore psychological concepts that many can relate to.
Right from top: What Did You Sell?, 2020 Chalk pastel and acrylic on paper 19 ½” x 25 ½” Restful Sleep, 2020 Chalk pastel and acrylic on paper 19 ½” x 25 ½”
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BELLA PETERS
Left: Burnt Out, 2021 Chalk pastel, marker, acrylic, and hot glue on paper 42” x 36” Above from left: The Collector, 2021 Chalk pastel, colored pencil, and ink on paper 25 ½” x 19 ½” Held Back, 2021 Chalk pastel and acrylic on paper 25 ½” x 19 ½”
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Stephen Sumrall-Orsak
STEPHEN SUMRALL-ORSAK BIO Stephen Sumrall-Orsak will receive his BA in art from Trinity University in May of 2021. He currently lives in Johnson City, Texas. He works in a variety of media including wood sculpture, photography, and drawing. His interests lie in exploring the analogues of the past to open dialogues between past, present, and future. His work is included in the Texas Collection at Schreiner University.
ARTIST STATEMENT I bring the beauty of the past into the present through traditional processes of creation. I work with hand tools, such as chisels, gouges, planes or saws, to slowly carve a piece of wood. I also work with analogue film and slides, and in my drawings I gradually build up tones with dozens of layers of graphite and charcoal. My painstaking processes of creation are based on my rejection of today’s fast-paced culture. We are more than internet culture, disposable culture, urbanization, or instant gratification. I ask the viewer to slow down, to ponder, to appreciate the beauty of old processes. My work is something you can hold and interact with; it has tactile qualities that don’t transfer through a screen.
Right: Paradoxical Echo, 2021 Carved basswood, wooden shelf, microphone, and electronics 38” x 15” x 11 ¾”
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Stephen Sumrall-Orsak
Above: Routine, 2021 Inkjet prints on rag paper on maple panels 42” x 69” x ¾”
Above from top left: Cyan Striations 1, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Cyan Striations 2, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Cyan Striations 3, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Cyan Striations 4, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Three stills from Planed, 2021 Digital projection Variable
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COLE WARNER
COLE WARNER BIO John Cole Warner is an art major at Trinity University. His primary creative medium is clay. He works with both freeform handbuilding techniques as well as slip casting. He is interested in creating usable space through the manipulation of complex forms.
ARTIST STATEMENT My work for EGRESS consists of nine colored sculptures. Each of these sculptures was made by cutting up and fusing together segments of five different slip-cast vessels. Because each sculpture is an assemblage of parts of different vessels. I call them Frankenstein forms. With these assemblages, I explore concepts of space and form. I am fascinated by how space is shaped, contorted, and defined by enclosures, and how space is embodied, even with the absence of physical barriers. In order to understand how space is shaped, I began with one of the most basic examples of a container––a vessel–– and disrupted its walls. The vessels are merging, slicing, fragmenting and intersecting, creating new forms and spaces with each new combination. I apply dyed slips to the finished sculptures, and then polish their surfaces to a soft shine. The resulting soft, muted colors offer additional character to each piece and enhance the juxtaposition of reflective surfaces and dark shadows created by the combining of voids from the vessels. Through this subtle manipulation of light, each angle presents a new scene of molded space to the viewer.
Above from left: Frankenstein 3, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 9 ½” x 12 ½” x 10” Frankenstein 9, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 10” x 9” x 8”
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COLE WARNER
Above from left:
Right from top:
Frankenstein 7, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 8” x 7 ½” x 7”
Frankenstein 6, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 6” x 9 ½” x 9”
Frankenstein 5, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 6 ½” x 13 ½” x 9”
Frankenstein 4, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 6” x 13” x 7 ½”
Frankenstein 8, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 7 ½” x 8” x 9”
Frankenstein 2, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 7” x 9 ½” x 6 ½” Frankenstein 1, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 4 ½” x 9 ½” x 5 ½”
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CATALOGUE
CATALOGUE STELLA LUCK
KATE NUELLE
BELLA PETERS
STEPHEN SUMRALL-ORSAK
Genetic Study 1, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 20” x 20”
Better Than You Know Yourself, 2021 Risograph on paper Three pieces: 7 ¾” x 3, 10 x 2 ¾”, 9 x 3”
What Did You Sell?, 2020 Chalk pastel and acrylic on paper 19 ½” x 25 ½”
Genetic Study 2, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 23” x 20’”
Our Main Competitor Is Sleep I, 2021 Inkjet print on archival paper 64” x 44”
Restful Sleep, 2020 Chalk pastel and acrylic on paper 19 ½” x 25 ½”
Paradoxical Echo, 2021 Carved basswood, wooden shelf, microphone, and electronics 38” x 15” x 11 ¾”
Genetic Study 3, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 24 ½” x 15 ½”
Our Main Competitor Is Sleep II, 2021 Inkjet print on archival paper 64” x 44”
Genetic Study 4, 2021 Acrylic, cotton, and polyester fibers 19” x 18”
Our Main Competitor Is Sleep III, 2021 Inkjet print on archival paper 64” x 44”
Burnt Out, 2021 Chalk pastel, marker, acrylic, and hot glue on paper 42” x 36”
SKYLR MCCORMICK-ISOM Conversations with the Ego I, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30” Conversations with the Ego II, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 30” x 24” Conversations with the Ego III, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30”
The Collector, 2021 Chalk pastel, colored pencil, and ink on paper 25 ½” x 19 ½” Held Back, 2021 Chalk pastel and acrylic on paper 25 ½” x 19 ½”
Routine, 2021 Inkjet prints on rag paper on maple panels 42” x 69” x ¾” Cyan Striations 1, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Cyan Striations 2, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Cyan Striations 3, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Cyan Striations 4, 2021 Cyanotype on Japanese paper 11” x 8 ½” Three stills from Planed, 2021 Digital projection Variable
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CATALOGUE
COLE WARNER Frankenstein 1, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 4 ½” x 9 ½” x 5 ½” Frankenstein 2, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 7” x 9 ½” x 6 ½” Frankenstein 3, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 9 ½” x 12 ½” x 10” Frankenstein 4, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 6” x 13” x 7 ½” Frankenstein 5, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 6 ½” x 13 ½” x 9” Frankenstein 6, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 6” x 9 ½” x 9” Frankenstein 7, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 8” x 7 ½” x 7” Frankenstein 8, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 7 ½” x 8” x 9” Frankenstein 9, 2021 Slip cast, stained porcelain 10” x 9” x 8”
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INSTALLATION IMAGES
INSTALLATION IMAGES
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INSTALLATION IMAGES
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