Visual Art – The Oberlin Review

Art by College fourth-year Sam Battle. “I really like to make art about nature, especially using topics from biology that a lot of people aren't super familiar with as metaphors,” Battle said. “I like being able to educate people about the crazy things their bodies can do, as well as connecting that to emotion and feeling.”

Students Create Art in Place

May 5, 2020

Art is always created in context — a truth made all the more apparent by the events of the past few months. Student artists at Oberlin, separated from campus resources, have had to adapt their creative practices for the semester, using this time to process the pandemic through art or to take a creative break from the world. Second-year Sociology and Studio Art double major Jacob Valero used his creative practices to help him adjust at the beginning of the pandemic. ...

“This Ain’t No Video Game, We Want Outta This Circus:” Oberlin Artist Explores Stigma During COVID-19

Casey Troost, Staff Writer

May 3, 2020

A new collaborative art project created by Oberlin resident Tekikki Walker, OC ’12, and Calgary-based Simone Saunders was unveiled online on April 29 as part of The Social Distancing Festival. The online festival aims to showcase work by artists whose careers have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, like the closure of galleries. In an effort to foster an artistic community, festival organizer and curator Nick Green paired artists on the “Long Distance Art” portion of the site. Green paired Walker, who creates digital collage and photo sculptures, with Saunders, who primarily works with hand-tufted textiles. The duo created a project responding to how the pandemic has impacted Black Americans. Walker and...

Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic, OCSA Program Seeks to Promote Open Dialogue

Jaimie Yue, Arts & Culture Editor

March 13, 2020

As novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, continues to spread worldwide, global populations have responded with fear, anger, and despair. However, amid these emotional reactions, it is easy to forget the need for open communication, especially on campus. Oberlin’s Chinese Student Association seeks to change that with their program “CSA @ AMAM: Culture, Life, and Family Bonding in the Context of Coronavirus” at the Allen Memorial Art Museum today. Event attendees pre-registered for the program, which is capped at 40 people. Today’s program is not the first College event related to COVID-19. On Feb. 13, OCSA hosted a candlelight vigil at Asia House to commemorate those who have died from the virus and pray for Wuh...

College fourth-year Kaitlyn Rivers reads her poem “Palatable Perception” in front
of “Untitled (Revenge)” by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

Poetry Event “Afterwords” Reflects on Allen Exhibition

March 6, 2020

Students, faculty, and community members gathered at the Allen Memorial Art Museum for “Afterwords: An Evening of Poetry at the AMAM” this past Tuesday. The event was in tandem with the “Afterlives of the Black Atlantic” exhibition, also at the AMAM. “Afterwords’’ featured spoken word poetry by nine students who not only responded to the exhibition, but added to the art and left the audience with more to reflect upon. The event was co-organized by members of OSLAM and the Oberlin Creati...

This past Saturday, the Oberlin Sanctuary Project opened an exhibition tracing the town’s long history of providing safe spaces to people of marginalized identities. It serves to raise awareness about Oberlin’s role as a sanctuary city. The exhibit will run through the end of the month in Cleveland Public Library’s Langston Hughes branch.

“The goal of the Oberlin Sanctuary Project is to provide a resource for teaching, research, and discussion concerning Oberlin’s history of providing [a] sanctuary or safe haven for people in need,” wrote College Archivist Ken Grossi in an email to the Review.

This particular exhibition aims to highlight Oberlin’s role as a sanctuary for various oppressed groups, from the pre-Civil War era through the present day.

“Our traveling exhibit and online digital exhibit include stories such as the Underground Railroad and anti-slavery activity prior to the American Civil War, the Japanese-American students at Oberlin during World War II, and the work of the Overground Railroad Coalition in the 1980s,” Grossi wrote.

Because the exhibit opened in Cleveland and will travel to other locations, it will teach a wide audience about Oberlin history.

“The Oberlin Sanctuary Project traveling exhibit will give our patrons the opportunity to learn what role Oberlin has played as a sanctuary community over the decades,” William Bradford, OC ’76, manager of the Cleveland Public Library’s Langston Hughes Branch, wrote in an email to the Review.

Oberlin Sanctuary Exhibit Opens in Cleveland

March 6, 2020

The Body Behind the Art: Figure Models Discuss The Job

Aly Fogel, Arts & Culture Editor

February 21, 2020

Walking through an art museum, it’s easy to find the names of the artists whose work hangs on the walls, but it’s rare that a museum-goer can name the models depicted in the artwork. Figure models serve as muses for artists, visual references that both the creator and the viewer appreciate, but these models are rarely given credit for their work. This is especially true for women of color, who have historically been misrepresented by white, male artists. In the Oberlin art community, figure models are often Oberlin students modeling for their peers in Studio Art classes. Some of these students also model for community classes at the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts. There are still racialized and gende...

Featuring pieces from Oberlin’s Special Collections and Anti-slavery Collection, “Subjects of Freedom” is a critical examination of the Oberlin’s historical narrative concerning slavery and abolition.

Art History Students Curate Exhibition About Abolitionism

February 14, 2020

“Subjects of Freedom” seeks to challenge Oberlin’s popular abolitionist narrative as the newest student exhibition at the Mary Church Terrell Main Library that opened Monday. It was curated by students in the seminar “Slavery and the Problem of the Visual,” pioneered by Assistant Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey, and acts as a companion show to “Afterlives of the Black Atlantic,” which opened at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in September. Institutionalized slavery ...

Works of art are lined up before students arrive to rent them for the semester.

New Approach to Art Rental Attracts Record Number of Students

September 20, 2019

A crowd of over 340 students lined up outside the Allen Memorial Art Museum last Saturday to participate in this semester’s Art Rental Program. For only $5, students were able to rent pieces of art from the museum’s collection, an event that College paraphernalia has boasted since 1940. However, as College fourth-year and chair of the newly-formed Art Student Committee Jacey Davidson explained, Art Rental is not always easy to navigate. “As someone who has participated in it for a long time, it’s been really hard,” David...

Attendees at the FAVA gallery panel this Wednesday. The panel was part of the “E. Pluibus” exhibition, which will continue through Sunday.

“E. Pluribus” Recontextualizes 9/11 in Analysis of Conflict

September 13, 2019

Walking into the Firelands Association for Visual Arts gallery for a panel focusing on the 18th anniversary of 9/11, I expected tense silence. Instead, I was met with excited conversation and laughter between an intimate audience and the panelists. The mood didn’t match the somber nature of the day, but I sensed that this would inspire the crowd to continue the conversation after the event. The panel concluded the FAVA’s “E. Pluribus” exhibition, a collection of artworks depicting war fro...

Slavery’s Modern-Day Impact Felt in “Afterlives of the Black Atlantic”

Jaimie Yue, Production Editor

September 6, 2019

“Afterlives of the Black Atlantic,” the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s latest exhibit, seeks to redefine the written history of slavery. The show commemorates the 400th anniversary of when African slaves on the English warship White Lion landed at Point Comfort in the Colony of Virginia on August 20, 1619. This date marks the 400 years since the beginning of institutional slavery. Curated by Assistant Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey and the Allen’s Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Dr. Andrea Gyorody, the exhibition will be on display at the museum until May 2020. The exhibit argues that slavery is neither geographically exclusive nor exclusive to the ...

Visiting Lecturer Manuel Parada López de Corselas Brings New Ideas to Allen Piece

April 12, 2019

Editor’s Note: This piece discusses anti-Semitism and depictions of anti-Semitism. Fulbright scholar Manuel Parada López de Corselas’ presentation on the 1432 painting “The Fountain of Life” illustrates key strengths in the way that Oberlin curricula engage with the Allen Memorial Art Museum, and introduces an essential new dimension to an important piece in the museum’s collection. Parada presented his groundbreaking research about the political ramifications of Oberlin’s copy of ...

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to Promote Marginalized Artists

March 1, 2019

Wikipedia is a source hailed for its informational scope and critiqued for its accuracy, but critics and supporters alike will both agree that it is widely used. Despite its wide reach, Wikipedia has less information on women and people of color in the arts than it should. Oberlin’s annual feminist Wikipedia edit-a-thon is designed to help bridge that gap. The Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is a national movement that started six years ago. According to the Art+Feminism website, Wikipedia is ...