political – Art Criticism

By Blake Wise

Attending the Dedo Maranville gallery exhibition “Bearing Witness”, visitors could possibly walk in on live debates over social issues within American economics and politics. The discussion always started on the walls and stretched around the entire gallery space connected from piece to piece. Margi Weir is the artist behind the work, and claims she’s had a myriad of different reactions from audiences since the series began, but one thing she’s always experienced is the impact. Weir’s work revolves around social constructs, governing ideology, racism, environmental issues and almost anything that has sculpted the American people over the past century into who we are, what we do and why we do it. The answers are all the same: we’re not doing enough.

By Jonathon Holden Staten

This year, Valdosta State University had the honor of hosting the 32^nd annual “Valdosta National” in the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, consisting of fifty artists and fifty-two works from twenty-five states across the U.S. The exhibition showcases the “best” contemporary art from all media. As the viewer enters the installation, art is displayed to the left and right with a choice of where to start. Furthermore, each piece was given a text panel consisting of the title of the artwork, type of medium, the artist’s name, and the location where the artist works. The floating question of the exhibition was “is this actually the best art?” Art is a relative term. Many artists, art historians, and others have defined characteristics or guidelines for something to be art, yet those guidelines have constantly been broken by a new movement of art. Using the artwork’s originality, craftsmanship, the content, and composition, I will evaluate what the artist is intending their art to convey.

Tag: political

A Catalog of Erosion in American Society

A Step For Change

By Jonathon Holden Staten