Fine Arts and Digital Media Exhibition

Setodzi Avoke
Staff Writer

The Administration Building’s Teaching Gallery is hosting the fourth annual Fine Arts and Digital Media Faculty Exhibition.

The exhibit, and open to the public from Nov. 3 to Dec. 3 features painting, digital display, photography and more by Hudson Valley professors.

Fine arts major, Daniel McCann, saw the work of two of his former professors, Thomas Lail and Benj Gleeksman among the thirty pieces on display. McCann enjoyed seeing the result of classroom theory and individual style, make it to a final product.

“It’s nice to see [what] they’re teaching put into practice,” said McCann.

Leading up to the exhibition, professor Benjamin D. Gleeksman, who teaches graphic design and digital imaging, delivered a presentation about himself and his work.

Growing up on a sheep farm in rural New Jersey led Gleeksman to wonder about urban settings, which gave him an interest in graffiti and the imagery specific to cities. Driving past defunct factories loaded with intricate forms once used for industry helped develop Gleeksman’s interest.

“It was so intertwined, yet in a way made these beautiful compositions,” said Gleeksman.

Skateboarding is the other half of Gleeksman’s artistic identity. Gleeksman, who has always identified as a skateboarder, started skateboarding in 1987 and has been skateboarding for around 30 years.

“As a skateboarder, admittedly, [we’re] just wired differently. We’re wired in some strange way that makes us not conform as well to the mainstream,” said Gleeksman.

Shirt tucked and clad in tweed, Gleeksman’s skater cred isn’t worn on a sleeve, but in his art and the lessons he teaches his students.

Rebellious and youthful themes natural to skateboarding, such as punk rock, and critiquing both authority and society with satire are practiced by Gleeksman. Gleeksman reminds students to keep an open mind and not to reach for a computer immediately.

Jacqueline Weaver, a digital imaging and video art professor, had an installation in the show based off of her experiences during the 2008 economic recession. Weaver witnessed tent cities popping up during the recession, and examined the reasons why people were displaced from their homes.

“How do we understand these things that seem so abstract in areas of the world that we’ll never get to?” said Weaver.

The two tents are reinstalled in a variety of places in order for many different people dealing with scenarios to talk, record, and send their conversations to her as part of The Border Projects: In Conversation.

“It’s all about how they experience borders on a personal level. I have people who talk about economic borders, immigration, their family immigrating to America or them personally immigrating, how addiction becomes a border, how psychological illness can become a border in some ways, social borders for some people,” said Weaver.

For her students, Weaver tries to make digital imaging into a practice of conceptual thinking instead of exclusively “monotonous” Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator tutorials.

“I’m always trying to challenge them to engage in the world in some way.”