UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State School of Visual Arts’ (SoVA) Edwin W. Zoller Gallery is hosting Sidney Church’s MFA thesis exhibition, "Accented," a multimedia show of do-it-yourself concocted sculptures and video dealing with Southern stereotypes and the depiction of Southern culture through popular media. The exhibition will be on displaythrough Friday, March 28. A public reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, March 24, in the gallery.
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Church will receive his master of fine arts degree with a concentration in new sculpture from the Penn State School of Visual Arts. Born in South Carolina, Church received his undergraduate degree at Clemson University in South Carolina, where his focus was in sculpture and painting.
“I enjoy making things that deal with technology,” said Church. “I enjoy programming things that make something do something. I enjoy ripping something apart and reusing it’s parts to help create some other function. I have always enjoyed taking things apart to see how they work, even as a child. Aside from that, before I went into art, my original focus was in computer science. It made sense to eventually combine the two.”
The master of fine arts degree is the terminal degree in the field and thus, the MFA thesis exhibition is the culmination of each student's creative research completed during their graduate studies. Students work closely with their faculty committee to develop a body of work that they exhibit in Zoller Gallery. Each MFA student also presents a public artist talk as part of the exhibition.
The Edwin W. Zoller Gallery is a nonprofit exhibition space dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts and is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday during fall and spring semesters. Zoller Gallery was founded in 1971 and is located in the Visual Arts Building off Curtin Road, adjoining the Palmer Museum of Art on the University Park campus. Public programming at Zoller includes artist lectures, visual art performances, artist residencies and interdisciplinary events. This facility was named for Edwin W. Zoller in recognition of his dedicated career as an artist and teacher.