Southeastern Louisiana University

Spring exhibitions feature guest and student artists; Tardo reception Feb. 13

Contact: Christina Chapple

2/6/09

Captions …

(1) TARDO EXHIBIT AT SIMS -- Southeastern Louisiana University’s Sims Library gallery will host a reception for an exhibit by retired Southeastern art professor Barbara Tardo Feb. 13, 4-6 p.m. The exhibit is “a mini-retrospective” of Tardo’s abstract sculpture and landscapes on display at the library through the end of the month. Above, details from an untitled monotype.

(2)  ‘EROSION’ AT CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY – Southeastern Louisiana University’s Contemporary Art Gallery will host the Ledelle Moe installation “Erosion” March 4-26.

     The January-May schedule of exhibitions sponsored by the Department of Visual Arts opened last month with a display of works by Southeastern faculty at the Contemporary Art Gallery in East Strawberry Stadium. Available for viewing through Feb. 19, the show features works by 21 faculty artists.

     The Sims Library gallery will host a reception for Tardo’s exhibition Feb. 13, 4-6 p.m. The exhibit, which Southeastern galleries director Dale Newkirk described as “a mini-retrospective” of Tardo’s abstract sculpture and landscapes, will be on display through the end of the month.

     A Southeastern graduate, Tardo retired in 2002 after serving on the art faculty for 37 years. A New Orleans native and resident of Folsom, she earned a master’s degree at the University of New Mexico and a Master of Fine Arts at Louisiana State University.

     The Contemporary Art Gallery will feature two guest artists in March and exhibits by Southeastern students in April, Newkirk said.

     South African-born sculptor Ledelle Moe’s “Erosion,” an installation of two large scale concrete figures, will be on display in the gallery March 4-26, opening with a reception from 5-7 p.m. on March 4.

     Currently chair of the Interdisciplinary Sculpture Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Moe was the recipient of the 2008 Kreeger Artist Award, presented by Washington, D.C.’s Kreeger Museum. In 2002, she received a Joan Mitchell Award.

     “Erosion,” completed in August and displayed at the Kreeger and Baltimore’s Area 405 gallery, belongs to Moe’s monumental ‘Collapse’ series that addresses ideas of loss and decay. The large-scale concrete installations have been displayed at Socrates Park and Pratt Institute in New York and Decatur Blue in Washington, D.C.

     Moe was one of the founding members of the FLAT Gallery, an artist initiative and alternative space in Durban, South Africa. A 1994 travel grant brought her to the United States where she earned a master’s degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has exhibited in a number of venues including the Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Sweden; the NSA Gallery in Durban; the International Sculpture Center and the Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, D.C.; and Maryland Art Place in Baltimore.

     The 2009 spring gallery schedule also includes:

     ▪ Feb. 15-22 -- Exhibit of functional ceramics and ceramics workshops by Bill Kramer, retired head of ceramic arts at the University of Notre Dame.

     ▪ March 1-31 – Youth Art Month Exhibit, Sims Memorial Library.

     ▪ March 4-26, Installation: “Bent Cole,” Contemporary Art Gallery’s “New Media Gallery.”

     ▪ April 8-23 – Department of Visual Arts Student Exhibition, Contemporary Art Gallery, opening reception April 8, 5-7 p.m.

     ▪ May 6-16 – Senior Exhibition, Contemporary Art Gallery, opening reception, May 6, 5-7 p.m.