Students and community members grabbing a bite to eat downtown can also stop by Harrison Galleries on University Boulevard afterward to see Virginia Eckinger and Mark Robert Barry’s art exhibition, A Version of Events.
From 6 to 9 p.m. until April 19, Eckinger and Barry will be holding an artist’s reception for their art exhibition. The reception is free and open to the public. The thesis exhibition is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree. Both Eckinger and Barry are in their fourth semester of graduate school at the University.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., Eckinger received her BFA in sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011, and has now returned to Alabama. Her work is both two- and three-dimensional. She creates ceramic figures combining both humans and animals as a way to provoke thought about society’s ideas of femininity and sexuality. Usually, the head is some kind of animal and the body is a human. Eckinger said the figures are always female.
“In order to tell a story with these figures, I pull from past events from my life to build the underlying narrative structure of the work,” Eckinger said. “They are inspired by fairy-tales somewhat, and deal with identity and sexuality and society’s perceptions of that.”
Eckinger will have three ceramics scenes displayed in the gallery. Each one is inspired by a domestic scene. Two of the scenes will be accompanied by two-dimensional drawings in the background.
Barry spent 14 years working in the corporate world as a graphic designer and brand strategist before deciding to go back to school. His work is a personal investigation of the physical and emotional effects of illness and disease. Barry will have seven paintings in the gallery.
“They are all personal looks into it, but I am hoping that other people can find ways of connecting with the work,” he said. “I haven’t given a way to much information in the paintings themselves to fully define it. We all are affected, either directly or indirectly, by disease, depression, aging or some other sort of health related stress. As such, I hope that people will be able to connect with these pieces in a personal and meaningful way.”
The name of the exhibit comes from Eckinger and Barry’s narrative style of art.
“Both of our work is narrative based,” Eckinger said. “Mine is sort of elaborations on personal narratives, and [Barry’s] is elaborations on dealing with concepts of disease. So they are both different version of events that have transpired.”
Both Eckinger and Barry hope to see a good turn out for the exhibit and are excited to see the public’s reactions to their art.
“When you are in grad school for art you are showing a lot of the work often, but you are showing it to the same people all the time – colleagues, other students, faculty,” Barry said. “So it will be nice to put it out there in a public setting and get a broader public reaction to it.”
Eckinger and Barry acknowledged that the reception provides good opportunities for students to broaden their perspectives.
“There is a lot going on in Tuscaloosa, that it doesn’t seems that the majority of the population is aware of,” Eckinger said.
Barry said he sees art as a way of engaging ideas in a completely different way.
“Ideas or concepts can be represented in a visual way and not by words on a paper or a book,” he said. “Books are great; I love books, but it is just a different experience. And seeing art in a book is not the same as seeing it in person. There is a big difference in seeing a painting and experiencing it in person from just looking at it in a book. You can’t experience the art unless you are there with it in the room, and it can be a pretty great moment.”
The exhibit will remain at Harrison Galleries until April 19. For more information about Eckinger or Barry’s work, visit markrobertbarry.com and virginiaeckinger.com.
