‘Valdosta Artists’ exhibit to open in TU’s Art Gallery on Jan. 13
Post Published On:The artwork of Sean Hurley and T. Craig Hawkins will be featured in Thomas University’s Art Gallery in the exhibit “Valdosta Artists,” which opens on Monday, Jan. 13, and runs through March 26. Hurley and Hawkins are art faculty members at Valdosta State University.
Originally from Connecticut, Hurley discovered printmaking during his second year of college at the University of New Hampshire, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 2008. As an undergraduate, Hurley explored the industrial ruins of coastal New England and documented his travels in intaglio etchings while working in the studio of renowned woodcut printmaker Don Gorvett. Hurley managed Gorvett’s gallery and studio in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for several years before running his own printmaking studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Hurley left New England for Indiana University, where he completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree in printmaking in 2016.
Hurley’s work can be found in dozens of private collections, including the Boston Anthenaeum, the University of New Hampshire Museum of Art and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. In 2016-17 he was the artist-in-residence at the Stutz Business and Arts Center in Indianapolis and completed a residency at Vermont Studio Center. Hurley taught for a year as a Future Faculty Fellow at Butler University in Indianapolis before joining Valdosta State University, where he teaches printmaking and foundations. To learn more about Hurley, visit https://www.seanwjhurley.com/bio-cv.
Originally from California, Hawkins earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Drawing and Painting from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. He uses technical skill, creativity and wit to create iconic faces, buildings and abstracts through dozens, sometimes hundreds of intricately painted, exquisite figures. Hawkins plans each tiny figure with its own identity and personality. Each piece is created in black and white with a touch of red on some of the more glamorous faces.
His characters include family members, friends and models. Each piece contains a range of 400 to 1,800 people in it. Hawkins spends anywhere from 50 to 150 hours working on one painting. His earliest works were street portraits, which helped him perfect his flair for replicating the human figure. Hawkins has exhibited his work across the United States and recently in the United Kingdom. To learn more about Hawkins, visit http://www.craighawkinsart.com/cv.html.
The TU Art Gallery is located in the Student Life Center on TU’s Magnolia Campus. A closing reception for the exhibit will be held at 6 p.m. March 26 in the gallery. The exhibit is part of Arts for the Community at Thomas University (ACTU). For more information, call 229-227-6964 or email actu@thomasu.edu.
