February 17-March 26: Art Gallery Series at FMU's Hyman Fine Arts Center Present Howard Frye, Brain Charles Steel and Leah Mulligan Cabinum

Art Gallery Series February 17 - March 26, 2015 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Mon-Fri Lines of Possibility - Howard Frye Impaired Perceptions - Brian Charles Steel Recent Discoveries - 3-D Works by Leah Mulligan Cabinum Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery Art Gallery Series February 17 - March 26, 2015 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Mon-Fri Lines of Possibility - Howard Frye Impaired Perceptions - Brian Charles Steel Recent Discoveries - 3-D Works by Leah Mulligan Cabinum Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery Distant Shore by Howard Frye, ink, 24"x19" Dr. Howard Frye graduated from Marshall University with degrees in broadcasting and art education and has taught in West Virginia and Florida. In 2002, he received a doctorate of education (Ed D) in art education from Florida State University and he has been employed at Francis Marion University since 2003, where he is currently an associate professor of art education and the coordinator of the art education program.  "I grew up in the coal fields of southwestern West Virginia, a place where the opportunity to see art was--and still is--extremely limited.  An important experience happened when I was in second or third grade.  During a visit, my uncle drew pictures for me with a fountain pen on a stack of paper.  I watched with fascination as he drew these fluid and beautiful lines, which magically became cars, ships, and animals.  It made a strong impression on me.  I've been interested in art ever since. "I'm interested in creating artwork with an emphasis on sculptural shape or form and an attention to subtle transitions of value and a relationship between lines and surface.  My aim is to simplify.  I prefer, in general, to make quiet artworks rather than bold, energetic ones.  I'm influenced most by the mediative quality I see in the artworks of Morandi, Chardin, and Buddhist art, the humor and quirkiness of folk artists, such as Bill Traylor, the power and timeliness of Egyptian sculpture, and the sublime beauty of Impressionist painting. "Although I often draw from observation, most of my recent work has been either abstract or non-objective and usually the result of a strategies that allow for free association.  Often I start a drawing without a notion of what I'm going to make.  One strategy I've used is to draw hundreds of straight, parallel horizontal lines until an image or idea comes to mind.  In addition, I will sometimes draw over photographs or my old drawings.  While my approach to drawing may seem to offer considerable constraints, I've found that it often spurs my imagination to come up with odd juxtapositions in my artwork, which is something I'm keenly interested in." Leah Mullins Cabinum Leah Mulligan Cabinum. Born in Athens, Georgia in 1967, Leah Mulligan Cabinum received a BFA in Metalwork from the University of Georgia in 1990 and an MFA in sculpture from Winthrop University in 2013. Leah is a tenured art educator in public schools and has also taught as an Adjunct Visual Art Instructor at Winthrop University. Leah Mulligan Cabinum's work explores the connection between conceptual possibilities, symbolism, and the physicality of diverse materials. Her creations act as a visual journal of life’s terrain. Life-altering events, as well as the mundane, inform her artistic response. The discovery and understanding of the literal and figural landscapes of life fuel her imagination. Brian Charles Steel

Brian Charles Steel is a fine art photographer and disability activist. He is best known for his black and white portrait series Impaired Perceptions. The series empowers people with physical impairments by encouraging individualization. His photography and writing have been featured on CNN and Disability Horizons. He travels the country exhibiting his work, and speaking about ableism. He has lectured on his work to various organizations including: NASA Ames Research Center and Abilities First. Steel graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a master of fine arts in photography. He uses his passion for photography, love of people, and unique sense of humor to create portraits that are naturally beautiful and human. While attending SCAD, he worked as the photo editor for The Connector SCAD-Atlanta’s student newspaper. As photo editor, he won numerous awards including: 1st Place Best Photograph: Editorial Feature Award from the Georgia College Press Association Better Newspaper, 3rd place Front Page Layout Award from the Society for Collegiate Journalists, and 2nd place General Photography Award from the Georgia College Press Association in 2007 and 2008. Steel worked as the official photographer for the Who’s Who in Asian American Communities Leaders and Legends Awards from 2009 to 2012. He presented as a guest lecturer on food photography at The Showcase School of Photography. Steel has been written about on Wikipedia. His portraits have been exhibited in galleries across the country. He curated a portrait series titled Inside the Outsider for Mason Murer Fine Art as a part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography. He also had a solo showing of his portrait series Impaired Perceptions in the same opening. His Impaired Perceptions work has also been featured on CNN.com and Disability Horizons. "I was born with short fiber syndrome, which means that I have small and weak skeletal muscles however, my biggest handicap is how others react to it. I knew my body from birth, but I was taught that I was handicapped. The physicality of my body’s form is scientific fact however, the implications of how that form is contextualized and perceived is socially constructed. You cannot declare someone to be less capable with out an ascribed normality of ability. This is a series of black and white photographic portraits of myself and other physically impaired people dealing with the concept of perception and socially constructed identity. Some of my subjects have physical impairments that are not visible, which further challenges the notion that seeing is believing. You cannot know a person simply by looking at them; you have to individualize. Tenebrism and direct eye contact are used to aid the viewer in seeing each subject as an individual by making their eyes the point of focus. I also used chiaroscuro to highlight the natural beauty and form of each individual. "My work strives to confront socially constructed perceptual fallacies that misrepresent people who are considered physically “different”. It challenges the viewer to examine their own perceptions and make any necessary corrections; it demands the right to be seen as an individual."