Linkage opens in Davis Gallery
13 January 2010 Linkage opens in Davis Gallery
Mitch Messinas art uses the tool as a springboard into sculptural form and, conceptually, as an artifact intended to celebrate the work of human hands. According to Messinas artists statement, his pieces are reminiscent of the forms and functions of pre-industrial tools that have become unfamiliar or lost to us with the rise of industrialization.
The opening reception for Messinas exhibit, Linkage, will be held in the Davis Gallery at Houghton House during Trustees Weekend, on Friday, Jan. 29 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Messina sees the implements he represents as allegorical symbols of the inner working of the human struggle to give shape and meaning to an irrational world. I attempt to recapture the tension, precarious balance, complexity and dissonant relationships that exist in our society-a society faced with an ever increasing dehumanization and mechanization away from objects made by hand-creating an alienation between the maker and the finished product.
Receiving his M.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and his B.S. from Portland State University, Messina is a professor and head of sculpture and ceramics at Nazareth College. He has had solo exhibitions in galleries in Philadelphia, Rochester, N.Y., and Harrisburg, Pa., among many others. His art has appeared in group exhibitions at colleges and universities across the east, including Manhattanville College, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Fredonia, Penn State University and Montgomery College and in galleries from Colorado to Kentucky. His work has appeared in Sculpture Magazine, American Craft Magazine and Ceramics Monthly, among other books and publications.
Refreshments will be served at the opening. All are encouraged to attend.
Linkage will be on display in the Davis Gallery from Wednesday, Jan. 20 through Friday, Feb. 19, Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 1 to 5 p.m.