Atlantic Center for the Arts 33rd Annual University Student Exhibition

Opening Reception: May 13, 2022, 5-7PM | Exhibition Dates: May 14 – August 6, 2022

Milo Ahone Davis – University of Central Florida

Jose Francisco Rivera – University of Florida

Richard Sexton – University of West Florida

Juror: Gregg Deal

Through the annual University Student Exhibition, Atlantic Center for the Arts honors the outstanding work being produced by state university art students and recognizes their dedication to the pursuit of excellence.

The selection process for this exhibition begins with individual art departments. Department chairs are asked to nominate up to three full-time, degree-seeking students in any medium or style. The quality of work submitted in years past indicates that the departments provide the intellectual and creative direction necessary for students to push their limits, resulting in work that is unique in its singleness of vision. By identifying and promoting these emerging artists, Atlantic Center hopes to focus statewide attention on the high level of creative and experimental work being produced at the college level throughout Florida’s state university system.

ACA Statement

ACA’s annual University Student Exhibition honors the outstanding work being produced by Florida’s state university art students. The selection process for this exhibition begins from within Florida’s nine major state university art departments. Each art department is asked to nominate up to three full-time undergraduate, degree-seeking students working in any medium or style. By identifying and promoting these emerging artists, ACA hopes to focus statewide attention on the high level of creative and experimental work being produced at the college level.

Gregg Deal Juror’s Statement

In keeping with the vision of Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA), I am grateful to be a part of selecting a few emerging artists that are working through their chosen mediums in both execution and subject that share the power of visual arts. The spirit of ACA is one of conversation, challenge, sharing, and working through ideas, and I feel these works embody exactly that. One of my own experiences in working with ACA is in thinking critically through the work, its processes, and what is possible in articulating something new or known, unique or exhausted, but articulated in a way that moves the viewer to consider what is being said visually. These artists were chosen in the spirit of that challenge. Materials that are, perhaps, unconventional to the so-called “high art” aesthetic, coming out of the other end with something that is beautiful, difficult, and wholeheartedly true. These works were chosen out of the bold but surprising execution of voices and ideas that stand out among their peers as being thoughtful and applicable. As an artist, I am moved by works that challenge my own ideas and my own perception of what is true, but also what is possible. My hope is that all who see these works, you will also see, feel, and be permeated by these incredible emerging artists and the pieces of themselves left for you to see in their works.

Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe) is a provocative contemporary artist who challenges Western perceptions of Indigenous people, touching on issues of race, history and stereotypes. Through his work—paintings, murals work, performance art, filmmaking and spoken word—Deal critically examines issues and tells stories of decolonization and appropriation that affect Indian country. Deal’s activism exists in his art, as well as his participation in political movements. He has been heavily involved with the media activist movement #changethename, posting a video to Vimeo inviting Indigenous people’s commentary on the sports mascots issue in response to mainstream media’s attempted erasure of Indigenous voices.

Most recently, a photograph of Deal was included in the December 2018 National Geographic Society Magazine article “Native Americans are Recasting Views of Indigenous Life.” Deal was Native Arts Artist-in-Residence at Denver Art Museum in 2015-2016 and Artist-In-Residence at UC Berkeley 2017-2018. His art has been exhibited nationally since 2002. Deal has lectured widely at prominent educational institutions and museums, including Denver Art Museum, Dartmouth College Columbia University, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. His television appearances include PBS’s The Art District, The Daily Show and Totally Biased with Kamau Bell.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Ed and Jeanie Harris.

Atlantic Center For The Arts, 1414 Art Center Avenue, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168.

www.atlanticcenterforthearts.org

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