Tangents: Works by Three Denison Faculty Members

Denison University routinely and proudly presents the works of their visual art faculty. Our current exhibition, Tangents: Works by Three Denison Faculty Members, follows in the wake of this long-standing commitment. Painter, George Bogdanovitch, and installation artists, Carrie Olson and Micaela de Vivero, are three studio art department members represented in this contemporary art exhibition. 

Recently retired professor, George Bogdanovitch, has chosen to display a series of new abstract paintings for the Tangents show. This series reaffirms his interest in the works of Hans Hoffman, the well known German first-generation Abstract Expressionist. Bogdanovitch has sought to recapture the vitality of the Abstract Expressionist movement through the use of expansive form and vivid color. In his last series of paintings exhibited at Denison, George delivered works that had been created with the use of large brooms instead of brushes. Acrylic paint had been swept across vast stretches of canvas for these works. Although he now paints on a smaller scale with this current series, he is still preoccupied with pushing a broom full of paint. The materials have remained much the same, but the change in process has created some problems as “the manipulation of paint is more difficult when endeavoring to sweep paint across a small canvas,” reports George. 

In many respects, this has also been a recycling project for Bogdanovitch. While ecological concerns have not been his main focus, he has been contributing to the recycling effort in his own way. He has employed abandoned student paintings on stretched canvas for his backgrounds in this new work. With the use of rejected cans of paint, or “mistints,” from retail outlets around the Columbus area, he has layered his paint on top of the used student canvases. An unexpected texture surfaces as a result. Most of the discarded cans of color that Bogdanovitch employs contain a bright hue. This kind of color adaptation is reminiscent of the vibrant tones viewed in the works of precursor artist, Hoffman.

While Micaela de Vivero has worked with combinations of performance art, photography, video, sound, and smell, she prefers to consistently research new materials so that her material approach will remain fresh. Even though she is most often referred to as an installation artist, Micaela maintains sculpture as her base, or her starting point. Thus, large transparent containers are central to her Guardaría installation displayed in this exhibit, and it is the three dimensional quality of these elements that intrigue her. According to de Vivero, these cavernous, yet fixed-limit objects have relevance to our human experience. The transparency of these objects is akin to the awareness we have of our selves through the time and place connected with our existence. De Vivero’s interest in transparent surfaces has ultimately led her from handmade paper and fabric to the see-through quality of pig intestines, as incorporated in this show. 

Through an investigation of decorative elements fused with technology, Carrie Olson focuses on our cultural tendency to adorn our bodies. Her in-depth research of this societal propensity reveals some of the impact it has on personal identity. In her installation presentation, Olson combines utilitarian and craft materials to punctuate her contention that we are transformed by the objects we desire with a result being body modification. Her interest in ornamental design is further drawn to cosmetic surgery and medical prostheses. There is a relationship between human and object. According to Olson, “objects are transformed by our expectation and our obsession for them, while we are transformed by our creation and our ownership of them.” As it is with most installation creations, Ms. Olson’s assemblage of art and materials is site specific. Her installation for this show has been designed for an assigned space in our Denison Gallery.