MFA Exhibitions of Colleen Smith and Nikos Karabetsos
DUAL MFA EXHIBITIONS OPEN AT BINGHAM GALLERY
Location: University of Missouri-Columbia, Fine Arts Building, Room A125
505 Hitt Street, Columbia, MO 65211
Dates: April 16-20, 2018
Reception: Thursday, April 19, 2018, 4:30-6:30PM
Open Hours: Monday - Friday, 8am - 5pm (573-882-3555)
Thalassa Nikos Karabetsos
The George Caleb Bingham Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of dual exhibitions by University of Missouri MFA candidates Nikos Karabetsos & Colleen Smith.
Karabetsos’ exhibition, Thalassa; Karabetsos Odyssey, manipulates text from James Joyce’s Ulysses and Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel as demonstration of lineage through appropriation. The new contribution, Thalassa, can be seen in the components of the materials and through the added, contextual understanding implicated in the presentation of the language.
Trained to Bear Fruit
Colleen Smith
Colleen Smith’s Foresteria is a series of seven interwoven narrative paintings in which the forest is represented as a liminal landscape that exists between fantasy and reality. Inspired by the artist’s daily walks through the local trails of Columbia, these paintings are about the search for deeper meaning after trying to fit the societal mold has been exhausted. They are about finding comfort in discomfort and placelessness, and learning to trust uncertainty. Using the forest as a psychological platform for journey, the figures in these paintings escape their daily worlds by wandering and tripping over tree-roots and down pathways, chasing after something they cannot name.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Nikos Karabetsos is originally from Detroit, MI. He is currently a MFA candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has also earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; a BFA in studio arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; a MA in studio arts from Marshall University. His work has been exhibited from Ireland to Huntington, West Virginia; in addition to being an illustrator for a children’s book he has partnered the Hotei Gallery and Art Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Colleen Smith is an oil painter currently working out of Columbia, Missouri, where she is an MFA candidate.. In her paintings, she creates imaginary worlds by employing myth, folklore, and the natural world to shape new female-centric narratives. These worlds are populated with figures who, left to their own devices, are venturing into worlds previously unknown. Smith has exhibited her work in Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, as well as Ukraine.