Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Art will host “Refined IX: Humor” exhibition Jan. 29 through March 12 in the Reavley Gallery of The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

“Refined” is a biennial exhibition of jewelry and metalwork hosted by the art metals program in the School of Art at SFA, according to John Handley, director of art galleries at SFA. Cash prizes totaling $1,500 are awarded at the juror’s discretion.

This year’s theme in humor is “A Bracelet, a Brooch, and a Teapot Walk into a Bar.”

“‘Refined’ challenges artists to display their authentic talent, free from the concern of modifying the work to satisfy one theme,” Handley said, adding the exhibition is focused on the diverse field of metalworking and jewelry.

“Whether you work in metal, stones, plastic, fiber or found materials, if you are a ‘smith,’ it carries into whatever work you create,” Handley said.

All work must be original and completed within the last two years. Submitted works are open to a full range of processes and materials.

This year’s juror is Andy Cooperman, a studio metalsmith, educator and advocate in the metalworking and jewelry field. He received his degree in studio art from State University College of Oneonta and has continued to make art and educate throughout his career, giving lectures and demonstrations at more than 25 universities and multiple art centers, and has presented at several professional conferences.

Cooperman has committed years of service with the Society of North American Goldsmiths and is a planning committee member for the Annual Northwest Jewelry and Metals Symposium. He has authored multiple articles, and his work has been included in numerous publications, including “Humor in Craft” and “The Penland Book of Jewelry.”

Cooperman continues to exhibit work throughout the United States and abroad including recent solo exhibitions at the National Ornamental Metals Museum and the Appalachian Center for Craft. He has work included in multiple permanent collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum.

The show, sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Junior Forum and SFA Friends of the Visual Arts, will open with a gallery talk with the artist at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, with a reception to follow. Winners will be announced at the reception. Admission is free.

The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House is located at 329 E. Main St. For additional information, call (936) 468-1131.

Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music faculty member Charles Gavin will present a horn recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The selected compositions will feature the lyrical, singing qualities of the horn, according to Gavin, professor of horn and chamber music at SFA.

Performing with Gavin are colleagues Scott LaGraff, voice; John W. Goodall, oboe; and James Pitts, piano. LaGraff will join Gavin in a performance of a group of songs set to the poetry of Walt Whitman.

“These are composed by Dallas composer Simon Sargon,” Gavin said. “He has previously composed music for horn, voice and piano, and I enjoyed performing those, so I was excited to learn of this new work.”

None of Gavin’s selections have been performed on the SFA campus, he said.

“All of the pieces are written by living composers and have not found their way into the ‘standard’ repertoire yet; I predict they soon will,” he said. “All the pieces are quite tuneful and readily accessible to any audience.”

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

The recital is part of the 2015-2016 Cole Performing Arts Series. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The College of Fine Arts at Stephen F. Austin State University will host L.A. Theatre Works in presenting Bram Stokers’ “Dracula” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Part of the 2015-2016 University Series, this performance features the foremost radio theater company in the United States, according to John W. Goodall, associate dean for the College of Fine Arts. For more than two decades, LATW, under the leadership of Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg, has delighted audiences with its unique live radio theater-style performances in more than 300 small towns and major cities, including New York, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago.

“An L.A. Theatre Works performance is immediate, spontaneous, and features a first-rate cast, live sound effects, and a connection to the audience rarely felt in a traditional theater setting,” Goodall said. “This theater… is an event.”

This current tour of “Dracula” includes several actors with credits in the horror and suspense genre. The cast includes the well-known TV and film actor Nicholas Hormann who’s been seen in dozens of television hits including “The West Wing,” “Parks & Recreation”” Modern Family” and “Desperate Housewives.” His numerous film credits include “Kramer vs. Kramer” and the early Oliver Stone horror film “The Hand.” Hormann will play Dr. Van Helsing.

Veteran horror film actor Skip Pipo will play the role of Renfield. Pipo’s long list of film and TV credits include B-movie favorites such as “The Janitor,” “Sam Hell” and “Poker Run,” as well as the television series “The Black Dawn.”

The cast also includes Michael Kirby, who appeared in the horror film “Hell’s Heart,” Paul Culos, Graham Outerbridge and Alexis Jacknow, all up and coming TV actors, Summer Spiro, a star of the web series “Dabsity,” and Patrick Wenk-Wolff, who has been seen on television in “The Last Ship,” “Rizzoli & Isles” and “Life on Mars.”

Prior to the performance, Zach Hanks, SFA assistant professor of theatre, will present a 7 p.m. informative talk in Griffith Gallery about the show style. The gallery is located across the hall from Turner Auditorium, which is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

The audience is invited back to the gallery for a post-performance reception to meet the performers and to honor the event’s corporate sponsor, Lehmann Eye Center.

Single event ticket prices are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for students/youth. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call the Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

SFA students may purchase Rush tickets for $3 during regular office hours starting Monday, Feb. 1. Students must present a valid SFA ID for purchase and at the door on event night.

The Heterodyne Duo will present a program of selected pieces that are highly varied in their compositional styles when the duo performs at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

The duo features Dr. Nathan Nabb, SFA professor of saxophone, and Dr. Brad Meyer, director of percussion studies at SFA. They will perform “West, or Evening Song in Autumn” by Masakazu Natsuda, “The Metaphysics of Notation” by Mark Applebaum and “Walk the Walk” by Michael Daugherty.

Some of the pieces draw influence from jazz and funk, while others are influenced by non-Western music and include extended timbral possibilities for both saxophone and percussion, according to Nabb.

The Natsuda work is “a beautiful, meditative soundscape for soprano saxophone, multi-percussion and drone,” Nabb said.

“The timbral changes, pitch-bends and micro-tones in the soprano saxophone draw strong allusions to the Japanese shakuhachi flute, while the percussion parts evoke the taiko drumming traditions,” he said.

The score for Applebaum’s piece is done entirely in graphic notation, which means that the performers react and improvise to the images found within the score, Nabb explained.

“Perhaps what makes this piece unique, even within that realm, is that the score scrolls and is projected so that both performer and audience see the visuals,” Nabb said. “As the title suggests, it is a philosophical work that is concerned with chance and notation and how different notational types yield varying results.”

The Daugherty piece is a fun and exciting work for baritone and multi-percussion. It is heavily influenced by popular music, including funk and rock and roll, and derives its main thematic material from the popular tune “My Girl.”

Tickets for the concert are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The work of artist Kent Rush will be showcased in an exhibition that displays Jan. 20 through March 10 in Griffith Gallery on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

Black and white photographs, drawings and prints are featured in “Kent Rush: Photo-Syntax,” curated by Neal Cox, faculty member in the SFA School of Art, who describes Rush as his mentor.

“Though this is largely an opportunity to pay tribute, Kent’s work alone merits exhibition,” Cox said. “A pleasant blend of graphite drawings, prints and photographs, his works show how one idea can have multifaceted executions and maintain a distinct aesthetic transcending the single-media approach.”

The exhibition will include “mainly close-up images of odd urban infrastructure, much of it discarded or vestigial, photographed through the plastic lens of a toy camera,” according to Cox.

Rush spent his formative years absorbing the artistic, intellectual and political milieu of the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s, studying art, drawing and printmaking. He earned a B.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts, a master’s degree from the University of New Mexico where he studied art and lithography, and an M.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin while teaching at the San Antonio Art Institute. After returning to California to show his work and teach for a brief time, he returned to San Antonio where he has spent the last 27 years making art and teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

His work has been exhibited extensively in the United States in solo, two- and three-person shows and group and competitive shows. Internationally, he has also shown in London, Brazil, Peru, Mexico and France.
Coming from a background in printmaking, drawing and painting, Rush, over the past 20 years, has appropriated photography as a means of making images, Cox explained.

“Specifically, he collects (on film) mundane objects and surfaces (primarily concrete) from urban and suburban sites and presents them in a monumental format,” according to Cox.

Rush will give a talk at the School of Art at 4:45 p.m. Thursday, March 10, followed by a closing reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Griffith Gallery, which is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.