Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University art professor Piero Fenci and two of his students will exhibit ceramic works in upcoming shows in the Houston and Dallas areas.

Fenci and students Homero Gutierrez, who is an SFA Master of Fine Art in ceramics candidate from la Universidad Autonoma De Chihuahua, Mexico, and Nic Gagne, a senior SFA ceramics major from Visalia, California, will exhibit works in the Emerging Artists and Their Mentors Show of the Clay Arts Museum and Education Organization of Houston. The CAMEO show opens Monday, Aug. 30, at the College of the Mainland in Texas City, and continues through Friday, Sept. 24. Fenci helped to establish the ceramics program at la Universidad Autonoma De Chihuahua (the state museum of Chihuahua) more than 15 years ago and returns periodically to teach, demonstrate and act as mentor to students. A new ceramic studio on the university campus was recently named in his honor.

Additionally, the Museum of Biblical Arts and the National Center for Jewish Art in Dallas will host a variety of art exhibitions in observance of the 20-year anniversary of 9/11. “Broken and Whole” showcases ceramic artists in Texas and will feature works by Fenci. The exhibition, which will open at the museum on Saturday, Sept. 11, is designed to express the “brokenness” resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent healing of a nation, according to Scott Peck, the museum’s executive director.

Fenci is teaching his 47th year at SFA. He has had exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout Texas and the U.S. Many of his former students are full-time, independent potters and sculptors, art gallery directors and directors of schools of art and ceramics program at prestigious universities across the U.S. and the world.

The talents of new faculty members in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will be showcased in a recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

“Our new faculty members not only have extensive teaching experience but each is also a sought-after performing artist, having performed across the U.S. and around the world at music festivals and schools as soloists, chamber players and orchestral musicians,” according to Dr. Nathan Nabb, interim director of the SFA School of Music.

“We normally have a new faculty member perform on our opening School of Music convocation,” Nabb said, “but we have so many new and outstanding performers joining us this year, I wanted to feature them in a more substantial way. I am very excited for these wonderful people to be joining our faculty, and I can’t wait to hear their performances on Tuesday.”

The recital will feature Minhae Lee, piano, performing “Totentanz” by Franz Liszt; Graham Mackenzie, oboe, and Margaret Fay, bassoon, performing Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon by Francis Poulenc, with Dr. Thomas Nixon, piano; James Vilseck, percussion, performing Meditation no. 1 by Casey Cangelosi; Robert Eason, saxophone, and Maria Lyapkova, piano, performing Sonatine by Claude Pascal; and Andrea Denis, horn, and Maria Lyapkova, piano, performing “Gambits: 6 Chess Pieces” by Robert Xavier Rodriguez.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. To purchase tickets, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit finearts.sfasu.edu. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.