Current Exhibitions

STARING

October 16 - December 9, 2009

VAN EVERY GALLERY

Co-curated by Jessica Cooley, Assistant Curator for the Van Every/Smith Galleries, and Dr. Ann M. Fox, Associate Professor of English at Davidson College

The Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College are pleased to announce the exhibitions, STARING. Inspired by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's (Professor of Women's Studies at Emory University) latest book Staring: How We Look, STARING extends Garland-Thomson's novel exploration into the valuable possibilities of the complicated, and often forbidden, act of staring.

This exhibition renders visible the visual dialogue between starer and staree that occurs in both art and in life by broadly asking ‘why do we stare?'; ‘why are some places, people, and events considered appropriate to stare at, and others not?'; ‘what role does staring play in the visual arts?'; and ‘what are the implications of staring from the perspective of the person receiving the stare (the staree)?' STARING ultimately introduces the possibility that through the act of staring, we gain insight into the unfamiliar; dignify the existence of a place, person, or event through visual recognition; and can come to a more profound understanding of, and respect for, our diverse and ever-changing world.
STARING includes paintings and drawings by Doug Auld and Chris Rush, and the photographs of Weegee, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and additional artists.

October 29, 7 - 8 P.M., in conjunction with the exhibition STARING, on view in the Van Every Gallery until December 9, 2009, the Van Every/Smith Galleries presents an artist-talk by Doug Auld and dialogue with Dr. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (Professor of Women's Studies at Emory University).

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson will respond to STARING, the exhibition, and discuss her latest book, Staring: How We Look (Oxford UP, 2009) in a talk entitled: "Disability in Public: A Conversation." Conducted in conversation with Dr. Ann M. Fox, Dr. Garland-Thomson's talk will explore the answers to questions including: What does it mean to explore the idea of the stare? What conversations about staring does this exhibit invite? What is the connection between disability and art? How do you translate ideas from a scholarly work into an art exhibit? What is the job of the public intellectual in exploring ideas about disability and staring across disciplines?

Doug Auld, painter of the "Burn Survivor Series" (many works from which are featured in STARING) will conduct an artist's talk following this conversation.

"Disability in Public: A Conversation" has been made possible through the generous co-sponsorship of Public Lectures, Anthropology, the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Communication Studies, Gender Studies, Philosophy, and Sociology.

Dr. Garland-Thomson is a Professor of Women's Studies at Emory University and a foundational scholar in disability studies. She is the author and editor of books including Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature (Columbia University Press, 1996), Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body (NYU Press, 1996), and Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities (MLA, 2002). This month, she was named on of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World," with particular reference to the ideas she puts forth in Staring: How We Look.

Doug Auld is an artist who lives and teaches in Hoboken, NJ. His "State of Grace" project, featuring ten large-scale portraits of adolescent burn survivors, was featured prominently by The New York Times in a 2006 story. The series included "Shayla," the first portrait of a burn survivor to be hung in the National Portrait Gallery, and one of the works featured in STARING. His latest work is entitled "Back from Iraq," a portrait of Cpl. J.R. Martinez (a U.S. soldier and veteran of the Iraq war who was badly burned when his vehicle hit an IED), and will be part of a show entitled "Remnants of War" that will open in New York in January.

PICTURING DAVIDSON: Bill Giduz and His First 30 Years

October 16 - December 9, 2009

SMITH GALLERY

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, October 15, 7 - 9 p.m. in the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center

A community-wide celebration and retrospective of photographs by Bill Giduz, Davidson alumnus and Director of Media Relations since 1979.