The Rowe Arts Building Galleries will host two exhibitions starting Wednesday, March 6. “Angela Franks Wells: Copper Mine” and “Jason Lee: Structured Environments will be displayed through Wednesday, April 3. An opening reception for the exhibits will be 5 to 7 p.m., Monday, March 11.
Wells, assistant professor of photography at East Carolina University, is a photography-based artist who specializes in 19th-century photographic processes and is a master at copperplate photogravure. Her work explores a range of ideas including the precious vs. ephemera, labor and craftsmanship, beauty and place and/or space.
“The nature of the process embraces traditions of photography and printmaking, and requires a great deal of patience, tenacity, and time,” Wells said of copperplate photogravure. “‘Copper Mine’ provides a visual record of my journey to better understand this essential material and serves as a connection between industry and culture.”
Lee, a multi-media sculptor and installation artist, incorporates a wide variety of materials and techniques into his oddly humorous constructions and presentations. In some of Lee's most recent work he utilizes custom fabricated light boxes as well as cast plastic ducks and extruded foam fences to create his vision of the ideal landscape.
“My elaborate installations display photographic images of sections of a cascading pristine creek, or a compartmentalized landscape, frozen in time,” stated Lee, assistant professor of sculpture and foundations coordinator in the Division of Art and Design at West Virginia University in Morgantown. “The constructions are reminiscent of the futuristic interior design of the 1960’s. They are made to reflect the vision of the future that permeated my youth, as seen in films such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Rollerball.’”