Museum Showcases Student Work

Art work by Knox College students has been selected for a show at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. The exhibit, College Invitational at the Figge, runs through August 31. It features more than 40 works by students from six area colleges, including Knox, Augustana College, Black Hawk College, Saint Ambrose University, Scott Community College, and Western Illinois University.

"It is extremely unusual for a major museum like the Figge to display works by undergraduate art students," said Gregory Gilbert, associate professor of art history and chair of the art department at Knox. "This is a significant recognition of Knox students' abilities and talents."

The museum invited art faculty from each college to choose up to seven works by their students for the show. The Knox students and works are:

• "Untitled," an oil painting by James Baldwin, a studio art major from Lake Bluff, Illinois.
• "Collaged Mattress," a mixed-media two-dimensional image by Katherine Bell, a studio art major from Rockford, Illinois.
• "Tum Tum Tree," a mixed media sculpture by Sarah Benkin, a studio art major from Mount Prospect, Illinois.
• "Intersection," an oil painting by Sarah Hasse, an educational studies and studio art major from West Chicago, Illinois.
• "Unraveling," an oil painting by Gaia Nardie-Warner, a studio art and art history major from O'Fallon, Missouri.
• "Dress Up Clothes," a mixed media sculpture by Aileen Kelleher, a philosophy and studio art major from Chicago.
• "Untitled," a mixed media sculpture by Selena Jones, a studio art major from Toledo, Oregon.

Hasse and Benkin will be seniors at Knox in 2008-09. Baldwin, Bell, Kelleher, Jones and Nardie-Warner completed their degrees in June; Bell and Jones received post-baccalaureate fellowships from Knox for 2008-09, and Nardie-Warner will begin post-baccalaureate study at Brandeis University in the fall.

"Knox is excited to have our students' works in the College Invitational exhibit, and excited to be part of the Figge Museum's outreach to educational institutions in the area," Gilbert said. The museum and the colleges are discussing educational programming, internships, curatorial projects and exhibitions, Gilbert explains.

Gilbert, who studies the relationship between American philosophy and modern art of the 19th and 20th centuries, gave an invited lecture about American artist Andy Warhol at the Figge Museum in April. He also has served on the Figge's advisory committee of art historians from area colleges.

"The Figge itself is a work of art, designed by famed English architect David Chipperfield, who has won the Sterling Prize and who was just awarded the commission to design the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin," Gilbert said.

A free, public reception for the artists will be held 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., Sunday, August 31 at the museum, 225 West 2nd Street in Davenport. The museum's regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 45 states and 44 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

"Intersection," by Sarah Hasse

Untitled, by James Baldwin

"Collaged Mattress," by Katherine Bell

"Unraveling," by Gaia Nardie-Warner. Not pictured, "Tum Tum Tree," by Sarah Benkin.