Lycoming College Art Gallery reopens with faculty exhibition

At its first show since closing in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Lycoming College Art Gallery invites the greater Williamsport community to its annual faculty exhibition, featuring recent works from the College’s studio art faculty. The show opens Sept. 4, and is scheduled to run through Jan. 23, 2021.

The 2020-21 Art Faculty Show will include the following artists:

Seth Goodman

Seth Goodman, associate professor of art, will exhibit “Eric in the Red Room After Hours” at this year’s faculty show. “My paintings look through the lens of America's class structure at the dysfunction of our political apparatus. I am interested in commenting on the truths that lie just beyond the folly and the fiction of the topical movements of the ruling class,” said Goodman.

Goodman is a professor of painting, drawing, 2-D design, digital art, and curatorial methods at Lycoming College. He received his B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Asherville, and M.F.A. from Townson University. He exhibits his artwork internationally.

Andrea McDonough

Andrea McDonough ’03, adjunct professor of art education, will exhibit a piece titled “Last. Love,” that incorporates gel transfers from National Geographic magazines, drawing meditations in graphite and ink, fabric, and paper. It was created in the style of a broken and sporadic meditation to display alongside student work for an exhibit that never opened in the spring of 2020.

“The process of creating can be a meditation. Bringing awareness to texture, material, line, and the way it feels to manipulate an image or to drag a tool across a surface. Sometimes it's connecting to the breath and scanning the body, allowing the breath to literally guide the arm and the hand to make marks,” said McDonough. “I save packaging, papers, and images that occasionally become transfers or find themselves embedded into a composition.”

McDonough is a secondary art educator and K-12 art curriculum leader for the Williamsport Area School District. She also supports the art and education departments at Lycoming College, and industrial design students at Pennsylvania College of Technology. McDonough is a successful grant-writer with a passion for public art and the expansion of K-16 visual arts experience in the Williamsport area. She holds a Pennsylvania K-12 Art Education Certificate and a Pennsylvania PK-12 Supervisory Certificate in Curriculum and Instruction. McDonough’s current art practice involves the exploration of mindfulness through drawing and experimental, mixed-media approaches. She received her doctoral degree from Drexel University, researching creative mindfulness in secondary art education.  

John McKaig

John McKaig, part-time art instructor, creates pictures that help him explore the idea of escape, ideas of mortality and passage after life, and about how to deal with trauma and healing from that trauma. He will show “Naples, Italy” at this year’s faculty art show.

“My use of the figure explores my identity as a queer man that is still expected to justify my experiences and basic human identity. I use nautical imagery, water, and the human figure in order to communicate essential ideas of how we relate to each other, how we affect each other, and how to move to space that is empowering and encouraging. I often depict the figure (or figurative elements or components) in situations or stances that allude to ideas of fighting back, play and wonderment, as well as stoicism and quiet resolve,” said McKaig. “I also work with the idea of ‘passage’ and ‘journey’ not only to communicate ideas of healing and working through trauma, but also to communicate the idea of growing beyond limitations and definitions of being — without the suggestion of irony or cynicism.”

McKaig is a professor of drawing and figure drawing at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, and is currently also providing instruction at Lycoming College. He received a B.F.A. in printmaking from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. He has taught printmaking, painting, and figure drawing at Syracuse University, drawing and illustration at Cazenovia College, and all levels of painting, drawing, printmaking, and photography at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

He has exhibited work in group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Internationally — recently at the Bankside Gallery in London, UK, and solo exhibitions at Lycoming College and the Pennsylvania State University. To learn more about McKaig, visit http://johnmurraymckaig.com.

Manuel Moreno-Lee

The works of Manuel Moreno-Lee, assistant professor of digital art, focus on narrative driven stories and themes of culture, nature, technology, and human identity using a wide range of mediums. “While I prefer working on traditional techniques to create my films, I always allow my own personal desire to push myself to explore new technologies to dictate how I create any new work. For ‘Lumens,’ my fascination with the absence of light led to the concept behind the film while exploring the ideas of hope and personal achievement,” said Moreno-Lee.

Moreno-Lee is an assistant professor of digital art at Lycoming College. He earned his B.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and his M.F.A. from Rochester Institute of Technology in Film and Animation. Moreno-Lee is a 3D generalist and artist whose work has been screened at festivals globally, winning several awards. As a freelance animator, he has worked in Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Rochester, NY. He works in a wide range of mediums to create narrative-driven work in both 2D and 3D.  

Andreas Rentsch

The recent photographic work of Andreas Rentsch, assistant professor of photography, possesses a close aesthetic relationship to performance art, drawing, and painting. Process has become the most important part of his art practice. Rentsch’s aim has consistently remained within the parameters of the photographic medium in order to discover new ways to articulate his ideas visually. Experimentation and chance have become important tools in his research. In the “Chair” series, Rentsch outlined himself with a flashlight and recorded these performances with a 4x5” camera on outdated black & white film. He then processed the film by “painting” with traditional photo chemicals directly onto its surface. The negative is then used in the creation of a cyanotype print. Rentsch’s methodology has been to abandon a considerable amount of control and allow the material to take over in some unexpected and unpredictable ways.

“The idea for the ‘Chair’ series was triggered upon reading the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett,” explained Rentsch. “In our over-saturated world of instant news, cynicism, and enjoyment in the misfortune of others, the play resonates during these times of social and political upheaval. As we seem to have lost our sense of respect for one another, especially toward people with differing views, my images from the ‘Chair’ series raise a microcosm of broader existential questions that need to be addressed in our society.”

Rentsch received his B.F.A. from Les Ecoles d’Arts Appliqués in Vevey, Switzerland, and his M.F.A. in Studio Art from Stony Brook University. Having grown up on a prison compound where his father was the warden, Rentsch’s work is an ongoing exploration of the connection of fate, geography, and politics in the direction of justice, and has been exhibited worldwide, including a solo exhibition at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, and is in many museum collections (Musée de l’Elysée, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va., Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium, Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, N.Y., amongst others).

He is a recipient of two New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships and two grants from the Polaroid Corporation. The prestigious photography magazine Aperture published one of his portfolios. Other pieces have been published in numerous books and magazines, including “The Polaroid Project,” a book published as part of a 7-museum exhibition of artists that have used the Polaroid film in their work. For more information on Rentsch, visit the following website: www.andreasrentsch.com

Howard Tran

Howard Tran, art professor and department chair, is exhibiting artwork that ranges from figurative sculpture to abstract two-dimensional pieces. Utilizing traditional and non-traditional materials, he creates pieces that emphasize texture and symbols that reflect his Vietnamese/Chinese background. Tran will show “To-Tien #28” at the exhibit.

“My work explores the Chinese and Vietnamese philosophy that are influenced by Buddhism, and Taoism — stressing simplicity, worship of ancestors, the cycles of life, and connection to nature. I explore connections between the generations before and after, as well as during, the movement between East and West,” he said.

Tran received his M.F.A. in sculpture from Boston University in 2000. He also attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 1998 where he earned a B.F.A. in sculpture. His work has been exhibited across the country in solo and group exhibitions. Tran currently teaches sculpture, figure modeling, and drawing.

ABOUT THE LYCOMING COLLEGE ART GALLERY:

The Lycoming College Art Gallery is located in downtown Williamsport at 25 W. Fourth St. The gallery contributes to the city’s arts culture and provides a way for the College to become more involved with the community surrounding it. Lycoming art students have the opportunity to interact with visiting artists and their work, as well as learn first-hand the inner workings of a gallery.

This fall, the gallery is open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 4-8 p.m. For more information, please visit the gallery online at https://www.lycoming.edu/art/gallery.html or email dirocco@lycoming.edu.