Opening Reception for Behind the Mask – Membership Exhibition

A Juried Members’ Exhibition of the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh.

Where: Latrobe Art Center – 819 Ligonier Street, Latrobe, PA 15650
When: October 6^th – November 2^nd, 2022 – Monday-Saturday 10AM to 5PM
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 6, 2022 – 6 to 8PM
Chairperson: Carolyn Carson: carolyncarson753@hotmail.com and Barb Kubala: hangarounds@verizon.net
Entry Deadline: August 1, 2022
Exhibition prospectus

Essentially, a mask conceals something from view. While we have spent the last two years literally wearing masks to protect ourselves and others, in a metaphorical sense all people ‘wear a mask’ to hide feelings, beliefs, thoughts, pains, behaviors, attitudes, desires and longings, a past, secret sides that few may know. As we move beyond the notion of masks for protection from a virus, let’s think about that ubiquitous mask in human nature. Let’s explore some of our hidden natures through our art work. Let’s explore desires of things we’d do if we could be masked and undetected. Would you rob a jewelry store or try out for “The Voice?” Let’s explore our secrets – the things we do that others do not know. Are you an expert sky diver, and no one knows? What’s behind your mask? Or, let’s explore the mask we ‘wear.’ How do we show ourselves to the world? What is it we do want people to see?

JUROR

An Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Gallery Director at Coastal Carolina University, Jim Arendt received his BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design and his MFA from the University of South Carolina. He has participated in multiple residency programs including The Fields Project in Illinois, Arrowmont’s Tactility Forum, and From Waste to Art VI in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has also been invited to teach at Penland and Arrowmont.

The first prize winner in Fiberarts International 2019, Arendt was also short-listed for the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art and a 2018 finalist for the Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh. He has received the South Carolina Arts Commission Visual Artist Fellowship 2014 and his work received the $50,000 top prize at ArtFields 2013. His work was chosen for the 2013 Museum Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Netherlands, and he has work included in the Arkansas Art Center’s permanent collection of contemporary craft.

Mr. Arendt has juried numerous local, regional, and national exhibitions in support of the arts across the country.