The Oconee Campus Gallery is located on the Oconee Campus in the lobby area of the Faculty Center/700 Building, near the bookstore. The art gallery displays approximately six exhibits yearly.
-
Spring Semester 2023
North Georgia Landscapes: Selections from the Mathis Collection
March 20 – August 18
This exhibition is the first public display of the Mathis Collection, artwork donated to the Department of Visual Arts by James and Francis Mathis. The focus of their collection is North Georgia artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries with paintings, drawings and crafts celebrating our visually rich landscape.
Fall Exhibitions
Alejandro Imperial: Woodland Views
September 5 – October 12
Artist Talk: More details to come.
As an acrylic painter, Imperial is consistently drawn to the beauty that exists in the natural world and the landscapes that surround him. He hopes to capture the essence of these subjects while exploring color relationships and different mark-making techniques. Photography plays an important part in his creative process as well. Using a camera, He is able to capture fleeting moments in nature and explore different compositions. His photographs serve as reference images when creating paintings. Alejandro is a UNG Visual Arts alum.
Faculty Biennial
October 23 – December 7
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso
This edition of the UNG Visual Arts Faculty Biennial will give everyone a glimpse of the child artist living inside our faculty. The professors will share their current work alongside examples of their earlies artistic expressions from childhood.
Fall Semester 2022
Transfers: Jen Graff and Alex Kraft
September 12 - October 14
Join us for an artist talk and pizza party on October 5, noon - 1:30 p.m.
Transfers is an annual exhibition bringing the work of DoVA professors to the Oconee gallery. This exhibition celebrates the ceramics program here at UNG by presenting the work of professors Jen Graff from the Gainesville campus and Alex Kraft from the Dahlonega campus. Their work explores the potential of both functional and sculptural clay through the manipulation of materials and surface decoration.
Lisa Freeman (OCAF Reciprocal Best In Show Winner)
October 24 – December 9
Lisa Freeman is an Athens artist and the 2021 Best in Show award winner of the Reciprocal Biennial which celebrates the collaborative relationship between UNG’s visual arts department and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. Freeman creates multi-layered constructions incorporating found objects, paintings and drawings which address challenging societal issues.
-
Christopher Hocking: Eye Doubt
January 18 – March 10
Reception: Artist Talk Wednesday, February 22, 2023 (11:00 a.m. - noon)
Christopher Hocking is an Athens-based artist who teaches painting and drawing at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. Eye Doubt is an exhibition of paintings that model aspects of absence and presence, reflection, opacity, and transparency, with surfaces that invite both projection and reflection
North Georgia Landscapes: Selections from the Mathis Collection
March 20 – August 18
This exhibition is the first public display of the Mathis Collection, artwork donated to the Department of Visual Arts by James and Francis Mathis. The focus of their collection is North Georgia artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries with paintings, drawings and crafts celebrating our visually rich landscape.
Spring Semester 2022
Department of Visual Arts Faculty Biennial
January 24 – March 11
This Biennial allows the Department of Visual Arts to highlight recent work by the art faculty. Each campus has a remarkable array of talented people who are devoted to mentoring their students. In class and out, these teachers are also practicing artists whose work is featured in galleries, museums and venues around the country. During the Biennial, we celebrate the UNG faculty as professional artists by exhibiting their recent work here at UNG for the university community to enjoy.
Stacy Koffman: Transitions
March 28 – April 22
This exhibition by former UNG art professor Stacy Koffman is called “Transitions”. According to Stacy Koffman, change is inevitable and all is temporary. That is where she finds her mind and her art. Her influences range from the practice of Buddhism to Aboriginal Art, the Quilters of Gees Bend and many creative groups. She feels that trying to name and define specific “meaning” within abstract imagery is often very difficult, if not impossible. She has paintings in her studio where the meaning changes as she changes. She embraces this transitional quality of both the work and her mind. There is meaning to the process as her mind comes and goes through different spaces. Perhaps the meaning “is” the process! Letting the thoughts come and go as in a meditation practice. Trying not to hold on to any one idea or thought, and simply “be.” This is where her best work comes from and the results surprise and fill her up. It is as if she is the witness to her own process! Those are the best days in the studio.
Fall 2021
Transfers: Erin McIntosh and Gary Pearce
September 8 – October 20
Relationships Sustain Us
Reciprocal 2021
November 1 – November 26
The Reciprocal biennial exhibition celebrates the invaluable partnership between the University of North Georgia and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. This is a juried exhibition featuring OCAF members. This year’s juror was Georgia native Kristen Miller Zohn who serves as the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions for the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and the Executive Director of the Costume Society of America.
The winner of Best in Show will have their own solo exhibition during the 2022 – 2023 academic year.