Standing before a wall covered in selfies, patrons may pause to wonder if this art exhibit in the Brubeck Arts Center Gallery on the campus of Wabash Valley College is art. Or one might contemplate if his or her Facebook pictures are technically art either.
In Arthur Fields’ exhibit in the Brubeck Gallery, which is now on display through March 18, the artist asks just that question: “Are the pictures snapped on our cell phones and posted online art?” Using social media platform Instagram, Fields points out that those #beachday, #foodporn and #selfie uploads are really just landscapes, still-lifes, and self-portraits.
Fields believes that we may not be using oil paints to replicate and memorialize the world around us, but we haven’t lost our need to do so. His exhibit takes us through his own Instagram feed, showing us how that snapshot at the barber shop and the selfie with friends are just pixels of a much larger photo. The larger image is one that shows our history and culture…in just one frame.
Arthur Fields holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography from Texas Woman’s University. He is a Board member of two photographic arts organizations: Ticka-Arts and The Texas Photographic Society. Also, he is an active member of the Society for Photographic Education where he served as Chair of the Multicultural Caucus and Student Volunteer Coordinator of the SPE National Conference for several years. Fields is an Assistant Professor of Art and currently teaches photography and runs the Shircliff Gallery at Vincennes University in Vincennes, IN.
The community is invited to “Meet the Artist” on Sunday, March 18, from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. before the final performance of the spring musical “OVER THERE.”
