![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/101\/2019\/04\/52272415_10157017060762766_5574605123411247104_n-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cMixed bag\u201d, the current exhibition at the Dedo Maranville Gallery at VSU, is an interesting concept of having five contemporary artists showcase their pieces to the masses of the school as well as those outside of the university. The five artists in the showcase -Max Adrian, Xia Zhang, Emily Carver, Elyse-Krista Mische, and M. Paige Ward- bring their own unique styles to the table in this current exhibition. The Mixed Bag Exhibition is an interesting idea of contemporary artist coming together and providing an insight to their own ideals and morals that leaves someone questioning why each artist only had three pieces each.<\/p>\n
The gallery provides ample room for all fifteen pieces and enough room to house a multitude of bodies within its walls. The atmosphere is still as it was for other exhibitions, well lit, spacious, wide displays, excellent use of both wall and floor space. With this particular exhibition, I found that the gallery space was underutilized this time around.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The Buddy Community”:\u00a0<\/em>Max Adrian, Cloth, Suede, Vinyl, Metal<\/p>\n The pieces by the five artists are organized in a way that seems rather vague to the eye. It is vague as in the use of space for the entire exhibition felt underwhelming. There was too much open space for these large to small pieces that it felt as if everything was trying to be disconnected with each other. There, unfortunately, was not a theme to this organization that I could see in the least, nor was there any particular order you should view each work in. Everything was spread too far out from one another, especially the works of the artists themselves. Each of their own individual works felt disconnected from one another as a whole. The fact that each artist has their own unique style, it seem rather odd to have this kind of organizational idea. Text panels show the artist statements and how they are as an artist when it comes to their works. With the superb lighting of the gallery, every piece was well-lit and easy to see even from a distance.<\/p>\n “Tether”:\u00a0<\/em>Elyse-Krista Mische, Paint (Acrylic), Paper Wood<\/p>\n The works themselves are a very interesting blend of contemporary piece and the artist\u2019s own personal touches to them. One of the few that stood out the most is Max Adrian\u2019s piece The Buddy Community<\/em>. The piece stands on a slightly elevated surface and has quite a few stuffed cat dolls wearing a variety of provocative outfits. At first glance, you see dolls of what appear to be cats all decorated and wearing these various items such as masks, rubber suits and other assortment of objects while also being chained together by the collar. At first glance, and once you realize that these objects that the cats are wearing are actually clothing used for various BDSM play. He is inspired b LGBTQ history, drag, puppetry, street theatre and other forms of racial performances. It becomes rather interesting seeing just how one would perceive a certain sexual conduct with such an outspoken yet interesting approach. I found myself simply walking around this piece the most out of the fifteen of sheer curiosity alone.<\/p>\n Another piece that caught my attention was the longest wall piece of the gallery by Xia Zhang\u2019s Madame X<\/em>. Her piece stuck out to me the most based on the content. In it, she has placed several still images of a movie with quotes on each of one of the character\u2019s present and their dialogue. The film she used obviously was about a group of Chinese women in America and how the Americans react to them. It feels slightly racist in what they say, yet poetic whenever any of the Chinese woman speak. Zhang shows her intentions as she is interested in conveying a narrative that shows \u201cintersectional concepts of craft, colonialism and even femininity\u201d as she discusses in her artist statement. The idea behind these pieces show those intentions the more they are read into. The awkwardness in the images when one of the Asian actresses is confronted by one of the white actors as juxtaposed to when the same Asian actress is in the presence of other Asian characters within the scene shows the intention the Zhang is speaking out.<\/p>\n In the end, the Mixed Bag exhibition shows five different styles by five talented artists using their own styles. Each artists brings a fresh set of eyes to the world of art as a whole and incorporates their take upon the gallery for all to see. The use of its space may be questionable, but should not deter you from visiting this exhibition if only to understand each artist.<\/p>\n Daniel Carter is an Art major and senior working towards his BA VSU. He was born in Waycross, Georgia in December of ’94 and has been an odd person with art ever since. His artwork revolves around his spontaneous\u00a0nature and out of nowhere perspectives on matters all around him. To him, the world is one large and mysterious canvas, naked and simply awaiting to have a little crazy color splashed upon it. The only thing that matters to him is what exactly can he create to make the make the word a brighter and more colorful place.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mixed bag. Mixed Feelings. By: Daniel Carter \u201cMixed bag\u201d, the current exhibition at the Dedo Maranville Gallery at VSU, is an interesting concept of having five contemporary artists showcase their pieces to the masses of the school as well as those outside of the university. The five artists in the showcase -Max Adrian, Xia Zhang, … Continue reading Mixed bag. Mixed Feelings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mixed_bag"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/101\/2019\/04\/Tether-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n