Chihuly
Currently On View through July 20
Dale Chihuly: The Venetians
On loan from the George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboratio
In the Venetians—called by Donald Kuspit a "toast to life"—Dale Chihuly achieves the most resplendently baroque work in his remarkable glass oeuvre, with blazing color, coiled tendrils, overblown flora and impish putti. In 1988, twenty years after Chihuly was a Fulbright Fellow
at the Venini glass factory, he returned to Venice. During that trip, Chihuly was inspired by a palazzo housing an extraordinary collection of Venetian
glass, mostly Art Deco-era works blown for the Venini glass house that exemplified the apogee of Venetian glass art. Intrigued by the astonishing and wildly inventive pieces from the 1920s and 1930s, he decided to design his own versions. The Venetians include the Putti Venetians, 15 capacious multi-colored vessels, each with hot-formed figurative sculptures of putti and mythological creatures in the design; 37 Piccolo Venetians, smaller but no less spirited vessels based on traditional Venetian themes; the Bottlestoppers, 3 monumental vessels inspired by perfume bottles, surmounted by hot-formed sculptures made by Pino Signoretto; and 12 Chihuly preliminary mixed media drawings.
All Natural: Work by Pamela Blotner and Sam Perry, Lockett Gallery
Pamela Blotner, BFA, Cleveland Institute of the Arts and MFA, Syracuse University, transforms wood, glass, fabric, and hand-felted and sculpted wool, to explore past mythologies in a modernized medium, interpreting folk tales and urban legends using three dimensional forms. Interested in the interplay and connection between contemporary life, nature, science, and the human experience, much of her work is inspired by the threats to endangered animals and human response to wars and environmental upheaval. Three of the pieces in the exhibition represent life-sized endangered creatures. Blotner has been on the faculty of San Francisco Art Institute and California College of the Arts and currently teaches at Pixar University, Pixar Animation Studios, and John F. Kennedy University.
Armistead Gallery
Michael Collopy: Face to Face with Movers and Shakers
Preeminent portrait photographer Michael Collopy, BA, Saint Mary’s College, is noted for his commissioned portraits of public figures. Large format photographs of many of them are on view. Collopy has photographed Pope John Paul ll, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and 5 U.S. Presidents, as well as entertainers, athletes, authors, business leaders including Bono, Paul McCartney, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Quincy Jones, Johnny Cash, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Maya Lin, Elie Wiesel, Alice Walker, Salmon Rushdie, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Lincecum, Michael Phelps, and Kerri Walsh Jennings. In 1996, 
Collopy released "Works of Love are Works of Peace." This critically acclaimed documentary profiled the work of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in India and throughout the world. In 2001 he released "Architects of Peace," inspired by Marian Wright Edelman. His work is in the permanent collections of the National Civil Rights Museum, The Hoover Institute at Stanford University, Marquette University and Santa Clara University. In 2008, Collopy formed the Architects of Peace Foundation; in 2009, he received the Martin Luther King Peace Award from Stanford University.
Big Keiths: Golden State Grandeur, William Keith Gallery
Large-scale 19th century Western landscape paintings from the College collection
Mysticism in the Tangible: Religious Artifacts from the Ivory Coast, on screen in the Walker Family Gallery
A virtual exhibition by Holland Enke, Class of 2015, Museum intern, an Art History Honors Independent Study project
The communities of the Ivory Coast - the Senufo, Dan, Baule, and Lobi peoples, display their religious and social practices and customs through elaborately carved and crafted objects. To better understand the mystic within the tangible, the artifacts should be understood within their cultural or religious purpose, as spiritual tools that both embody, and allow communication with, the mystical world.