The Fine Arts Department is pleased to present the special exhibition, ‘Still Life,’ featuring the work of Erin L. Palmer, M.F.A., Associate Professor of drawing and painting, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Organized by Andrew Hairstans, Associate Professor of Fine Arts at AUM, the exhibition runs from Monday, October 2 through Friday, October 27th in Goodwyn Gallery.
Erin L. Palmer’s exhibition ‘Still Life’ draws together twelve still life paintings, each of which investigates seemingly mundane subject matter in mostly sparse, spare compositions. Palmer pays careful attention to detail, light, and the visual effects created by reflective surfaces. On occasion, the artist also inserts herself into the composition as a fragmented, captured reflection peering out at the viewer.
Still life painting emerged as a distinctive genre in 16th-century Dutch art. A still life is a work of art that depicts either natural inanimate subjects, such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, dead animals, and shells, or man-made objects, such as vessels, books, and instruments. Many still life paintings also reference the vanitas or memento mori tradition, wherein arrangements of sumptuous objects that relate to the passage of time operate as symbolic reminders of life’s impermanence and man’s mortality. Artists from Pieter Claesz (Dutch, 1597-1661) to Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906) have used still life as a space for observational study, pictorial experimentation, and personal expression.
Erin Palmer received her MFA from Yale School of Art in 1993. Her work is primarily figurative, drawn from direct observation, and is included in a number of private collections. For more information about Palmer, visit her SIU faculty page.
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Goodwyn Gallery is a 600-square foot exhibition space located on the campus of Auburn University at Montgomery. In keeping with AUM’s mission to foster and exemplify educational excellence while upholding the finest traditions of scholarship, Goodwyn Gallery is an integral part of the programs and curricula of the Department of Fine Arts and the College of Arts & Sciences.
High quality, thought-provoking exhibitions are presented throughout the year to engage the university and wider Montgomery community. The gallery features regionally and nationally recognized visiting artists, works by Fine Arts Department faculty and students, alongside exhibitions curated by Art History and Museum Studies students and faculty.
The Fine Arts Department also boasts a collection of paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, with strengths in 20th-century prints. Rotating exhibitions draw upon this material as well.
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