The Slocumb Galleries under the Department of Art & Design at the ETSU College of Arts and Sciences provide year-round exhibition program featuring BFA and MFA Graduation Shows and the Visiting Artists Exhibition & Lecture Series with the aims to encourage the development of the visual arts in support of the academic experience at ETSU and the surrounding communities. The galleries’ mission is to provide venue and access to contemporary art by organizing innovative exhibitions that promote artistic excellence, cultural awareness and creative thinking.

The Slocumb Galleries also organizes the annual Positive Negative Juried National Art Exhibition. This anticipated event draws artists all over the country using various media and technique contributing to the academic and local communities’ exposure and broader appreciation of current trends in contemporary art.

The Slocumb Galleries has partnered with various ETSU units such as the Women’s Studies Program, Office of Multicultural Affairs, International Program and Services, Division of Theater and Dance under the Department of Communications, Honors College, Archives of Appalachia, Bluegrass, Olde Time and Country Music Program and the Reece Museum to advance interdisciplinary collaborations. Support from local establishments such as the Nelson Fine Art, Artopia, Urban Redevelopment Alliance, Johnson City Custom Framing, Mountain States Health Alliance, Johnson City Area Arts Council as well as individuals and groups in the private sector who support the Friends of the Slocumb Galleries are significant in the success of its program.

The ETSU Department of Art & Design’s Permanent Collection is also under the curatorial care of the Slocumb Galleries. The recent and most significant addition to the collection is the acquisition of 152 original photographs by Andy Warhol through a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Photographic Legacy Project.

The Slocumb Galleries are open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The Tipton gallery at 126 Spring St. in Downtown JC is also operated by SG for its student exhibitions; gallery hours at Tipton is by appointment. For more information, please contact SG Director Karlota I. Contreras-Koterbay via email contrera@etsu.edu or call 423.483.3179.

To support the Slocumb Galleries, please donate cash or in-kind gifts to Slocumb Galleries Fund
c/o Karlota Contreras-Koterbay

Positive Negative 25
The Slocumb Galleries is pleased to present the Annual Positive Negative 25 National Art Exhibition from January 14 through February 5, 2010. This year’s show, featuring works from fifteen artists from around the nation, includes paintings, drawings, and, for the first time, video art. The Slocumb Galleries are located inside Ball Hall on the main campus of East Tennessee State University. This year’s juror is Julien Robson, curator of contemporary art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. A closing reception is scheduled on February 5, First Friday at 5 p.m. with a Juror’s lecture and awarding ceremony at 4 p.m. at the Ball Hall Auditorium.

This year’s participating artists are: Bruce Allen (Louisiana), Aaron Bernard and Brian Glaze (North Carolina), Christie Blizard and Lahib Jaddo (Texas), Jared Lee Cleghorn and Jean Hess (Tennessee), Carrie Dyer and Ray Ogar (Arkansas), Carol Hanna (Michigan), Josh Johnson and Tanner Young (Nebraska), Bruce Pollock (Pennsylvania), Rachel Simmons (Florida), and Laura Yang (Delaware).
Interested in the interactions between his various media, Louisiana artist Bruce Allen’s sculptures feature a variety of mediums, from cast iron to found objects, and contain sharp social commentary; his sculptures are both fragile and powerful simultaneously. Aaron Bernard combines drawing and mixed media to create sculptural forms, or, as he calls them, “sculptural drawings”; highly representative of forms found in his home, his art is simultaneously disconcerting and highly engaging that each piece, while retaining the crucial elements of drawing, becomes sculptural and confronts the viewer with subjects. Similarly treading to transgress the 2D and 3D divide while employing a variety of visual solutions, Brian Glaze seeks to “inform the viewer of subjects which may have been overlooked” in every day life; his sculptures and print combine the ordinary in unexpected ways.

Drawing upon influences as varied as Dutch painting and Navajo rug designs, multimedia artist Christie Blizard, weaves together video and audio sources in interesting ways to create two short videos; her works feed back images and forms in a variety of divergent manners. Another video artist, Ray Ogar’s works are digital narratives that “exists as feedback loop of fragmented mundane images, and relics of science and fiction” vis-à-vis its social context. Jared Lee Cleghorn’s interest in science and spirituality are reflected in his mixed media pieces exploring the mythical and spiritual side of science. While Carrie Dyer’s digital works evoke the spiritual and metaphorical, they are confronting juxtaposed ideas of hopefulness and shattered childlike social constructs. Interpreting the songs of birds in visual language, Carol Hanna creates air brushed canvases that draw inspiration from the colors of birds and the notes of their songs; they are, thus, “a shimmering and vibrating song interpretation.”

Being a regional artist based in Knoxville, Jean Hess draws upon local Appalachian influences as well as popular culture in her mixed media works on panel; each piece is a visual puzzle arranged in a grid pattern. Inspired by his Iraqi heritage, Lahib Jaddo’s works draws upon deeply personal themes of loss and belonging; his work of female images in burqas combine a singular prominent figure, or “archetype,” with other elements, such as indigenous script from family letters. Sculptor Josh Johnson explores an inward nature that is a mixture of intangibility and the unknown; he uses conventional materials but in new and unexpected ways such as polysterene and carpet tacks. Fellow sculptor from Nebraska, Tanner Young crafts from wood the unknown histories attached to objects; his large sculptures are components of a larger unseen whole, whose connections and structure are laid bare for the viewer to witness. Drawing upon fractals, biology, and the geometric growth patterns found in plants, corals, and mollusks, Bruce Pollock creates paintings that introduce the viewer, in a finite space, to the idea of the infinite. In contrast, Rachel Simmons, uses text and imagery to invoke the ephemeral; drawing on personal influences concerning global warming and extensive travel to wilderness locations, especially Antarctica, Simmons’ images are non-intrusive yet powerful. Lastly, Laura Yang uses digital media and collage to explore aspects of our own times. She discusses contrasts, ambiguities, and displacement of people and their dreams.