Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. This quote by journalist John Ed Pearce perhaps best sums up the deep-set emotional connect that home holds for most of us.
Expanding on the idiom that “Home is where the heart is”, a new exhibition titled Home will open at HBKU Student Center Art Gallery at 6pm on January 24, and will be on until February 25. The entry is free.
The “Home” project is part of an ongoing exploration surrounding the idea of the domestic landscape, developed in the multidisciplinary Art Foundation programme at (VCU-Q).
“No matter where an individual may hail from, the idea of home is unique to each of us,” says a note on the upcoming exhibition, “First-year students in the Drawing Studio were directed by Professor Jesse Payne to pursue inquiries around personal objects and experiment with various mark-making techniques in order to translate domestic experiences into their work. This body of work represents a distinct approach to drawing around the meaning of home from a diverse and multi-cultural perspective.”
As for the mentor, an American artist currently working and teaching in Doha, Payne is the Head of the Drawing Studio and Assistant Professor in the Art & Design Foundations Department of VCU-Q. Payne’s work uses rigorous craft to amplify his creative interests: what does it mean to understand an artist’s gaze, and what does it do to a culture to censor it?
His subjects, be it dimensioned iterations of Leonardo’s grotesque faces, or the further obscurity of censored art, are rendered in a hyper-representationalist manner, interrogating viewers with these same questions, as he remains committed in his constant exploration of providing opportunities to viewers to better understand the artist’s gaze. “Payne’s work is a reflection of self-investigation and influenced by the environment, people, and experiences he encounters in his day-to-day life,” his biography states.
Meanwhile, on January 20 at 6pm, the VCU-Q Gallery will be home to the 2016 Faculty Exhibition, an exhibition of works by artists and designers who are teaching and researching at VCU-Q.
“The aim of the annual Faculty Exhibition is to give faculty members an opportunity to present their results of current artistic and design research and exploration in a select, juried exhibition that provides enhanced visibility to both faculty members and the VCUQ Gallery,” says a note on the upcoming event, which will be on until February 15. The entry is free.
VCU-Q appears to have the 2016 calendar buzzing with activities. The 17th Annual VCUQatar Fashion Show is slated to be held from April 12 to April 14, and the BFA & MFA Exhibition 2016, which features all graduating students from the BFA and MFA programmes at VCU-Q, will be on from May 1 to May 21.
The annual BFA & MFA Exhibition of Qatar’s graduating artists and designers is a celebration, says VCU-Q, “of the creative achievements of the university’s graduating students and provides the opportunity to preview Qatar’s emerging talent in the fields of graphic, fashion and interior design, painting & printmaking, and design studies”.