‘Challenging Borders’

Great Lakes Colleges Association brings art exchange to Allegheny

Photos by Emily Rice
“Marchenbrunnen im Winter” (Fairy Fountain in Winter) is a 2017 digital photography and lightbox creation by Ron Abram, associate professor of studio art at Denison University.

Allegheny College opened “Challenging Borders,” its first Great Lakes Colleges Association faculty art exhibition on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, in the Bowman~Penelec~Megahan Art Galleries. Faculty artists from Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University and Kenyon College submitted artwork that focused, in some way, on borders, according to the Allegheny art department website.

Produced by Kenyon College Professor of Art Claudia Esslinger, “Horizons” features a series of LCD displays of video with neon lights, acrylic and wood.

Allegheny Assistant Professor of Digital Art and Painting Byron Rich submitted artwork to the show, along with over 10 faculty members from other institutions. A jury of Allegheny art faculty and Ohio Wesleyan’s Justin Kronewetter curated the show. The borders theme requirement was broad, allowing the art to range from environmental to political and the artists to present borders as a method of asserting power.

“Challenging Borders” will also sponsor three panel discussions at Allegheny, featuring artists whose work appears in the show. The three panel discussions center around the topics, “Border Crossings,” “Indigenous Geographies” and “Beyond Borders,” and will take place Feb. 19, Feb. 26 and March 4, respectively. The show will run until mid-March.

A collection of 20 photographs titled “Daily Life and Urban Spaces of Transnational Colombians in Two U.S. Cities” hangs in the Bowman~Penelec~Megahan Art Galleries at Allegheny College. The 2018 collection was created by Rodolfo Guzman, professor of Spanish and Hispanic studies at Earlham College.