Vanderbilt University’s Department of Art kicks off the fall season with two new exhibitions in the Space 204 gallery. Mind Reader by Sarah Applebaum and The Other Side by Nick DeFord will open Thursday, Aug. 30, and continue through Friday, Oct. 5. An opening reception will be held Thursday, Aug. 30, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Calling Mind Reader a “personal parade” or a form of protest, Applebaum’s new work seeks to explore her own mind through the use of signs and symbols. Heavily influenced by her experiences and study of psychology, Applebaum’s work “bridges the gap between the psychological and the psychedelic, bringing freedom and an exploratory ethos to the art-making process,” she said.
The internationally recognized Applebaum has been exhibited at La Triennale Di Milano Design Museum in Milan; Nordic House Cultural Center in Reykjavik, Iceland; the Denver Biennial of the Americas in Colorado; and the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art in California, as well as many other places. Her work has been featured in numerous books and publications throughout China, North and South America and Europe. A self-taught artist, she resides and works in San Francisco, Calif.
Knoxville artist Nick DeFord physically stitches and layers materials into an examination of the boundaries between the known and unknown, focusing his work predominantly on subject matter “infamous for its mystery,” such as strange locales, monsters, the occult and mysticism. In The Other Side, DeFord’s work focuses on the afterlife and presents the anxiety and allure of reaching out into the unknown and “bringing back a hint of what is there,” he said.
DeFord’s work has been exhibited nationally, with recent shows at the Knoxville Museum of Art and the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts in New Jersey. His work also appeared recently in Elephant Magazine and Strange Attractors: Investigations in Non-Humanoid Extraterrestrial Sexualities. He received his MFA from Arizona State University and his BFA from the University of Tennessee and has previously taught at both institutions. He recently became the program manager for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
Space 204 is located at 25th Avenue South and Garland Avenue in the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Art Center on the Vanderbilt campus. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. All exhibits are free and open to the public.
For more information, contact the Department of Art at (615) 343-7241, or visit its website.
Contact: Diane Acree, (615) 343-7241
diane.acree@vanderbilt.edu