The De Pree Art Center and Gallery at Hope College is hosting the traveling exhibition “Between the Shadow and the Light: An Exhibition Out of South Africa” from Monday, Jan. 9, through Thursday, Feb. 9.
Additional events will include a curator’s talk, artist’s talk and closing reception on Friday, Feb. 3, at 3 p.m. at the De Pree Art Center and Gallery.
The public is invited to the exhibition and the related events. Admission to each is free.
“Between the Shadow and the Light: An Exhibition Out of South Africa” includes art created by 21 Christian artists from the United States, Canada, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The artists (including Katherine Sullivan, who is a professor of art and chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Hope) spent two weeks together in South Africa in an intensive seminar in June of 2013, participating in a program designed to introduce them to the many social, economic and political complexities in the region. The result was an exhibition of nearly 40 works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation and video, using a range of styles and approaches to explore those issues raised throughout the seminar.
The curator’s talk will be delivered on Friday, Feb. 3, at 3 p.m. by Jo-Ann VanReeuwyk, who is a fiber artist and associate professor of art and art history at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. She has been featured in galleries in Washington, British Colombia, Montana and Michigan, and compares her work to personalities: “Just as our personalities are multi-dimensional, and just as we need to peel away layers to discover the true essence of someone or something, these pieces reflect complexity.”
The artist’s talk will be presented on Friday, Feb. 3, at 4 p.m. by Margaret Allotey-Pappoe, who is the department chair of Art & Design and assistant professor of graphic design at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
The closing reception will be held on Friday, Feb. 3, beginning at 5 p.m. and running until 6:30 p.m. The reception will include a display of posters depicting students’ experiences while participating in the college’s May Term in South Africa led by Dede Johnston, professor of communication at Hope.
“Between the Shadow and the Light: An Exhibition Out of South Africa” is co-sponsored by the Lilly Fellows Program for Humanities and the Arts, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, and the Nagel Institute of Calvin College, with major support from Walter and Darlene Hansen, the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship and the Joan L. and Robert C. Gilkison Family Foundation.
The De Pree Art Center and Gallery is located at 275 Columbia Ave., between 10th and 13th streets. The gallery is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.