TAMIU’s ‘State of Things’ Art Exhibit Comes to End
“The State of Things” a new art exhibition featuring ceramic artists from across The Texas A&M University System has ended at Texas A&M International University's (TAMIU) Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Gallery.
The exhibit closed Friday, March 8, 2024.
The exhibition offered a historic first for TAMIU: all participating artists were ceramics faculty members from different the A&M System campuses.
Participating ceramic artists and their home universities were Misty Gamble (West Texas A&M University), Leandra Urrutia (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi), Christy Wittmer (Texas A&M University-Commerce), and Emily N. Bayless (TAMIU).
Gamble’s work is inspired by the human figure and its infinite capacity for communication. As a child, she was immersed in her father’s world of puppetry and the performing arts. In 1998, she was invited to be the first American to perform in Iran (since 1979) at the 7th International Puppet Festival. Her current work, life-size figurative sculptures, and installations of multiple figurative elements, focuses attention on issues surrounding femininity and challenges conventional standards of morality, normalcy, and decency.
Urrutia is an object maker and storyteller. Borrowing parts of the human form, she makes powerful compositions and installations showcasing her wild and unconventional creative sense. Her studio work illustrates compelling female-centered struggles between body and mind, especially as one experiences injury, healing, and aging. Her Mexican-American heritage, Catholic upbringing, interest in aggressive sports, and visits to China bring an unorthodox influence to the ceramic/mixed media sculptures she dreams up.
Wittmer writes that she creates sculptures that challenge expectations of function and notions of stability. “My intricate porcelain forms are records of time, skills, and the process of making. Broken objects are repaired because they are needed or valued. Found objects are inconsequential debris that are collected and given a purpose. The time spent in making, repairing, and finding become an act of caring embedded in the art,” she has said.
Bayless works in clay and fiber. Her studio research practice is focused on the history of ceramics, gender equity, craft, and installation. Her work challenges the technical threshold of clay with pieces that are precarious, fragile, and stretch the stable scale of ceramic objects. She has expertise in hand-building, wheel-throwing, mold-making, sculptural installation, kiln firing techniques, and surface decoration techniques. She is also self-taught in various weaving and sewing techniques.
For additional information on the “State of Things” Exhibition, contact Bayless at emily.bayless@tamiu.edu.
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