The De Pree Art Center and Gallery at Hope College is presenting an exhibition featuring the work of Shauna Merriman, who was the Borgeson Artist-in-Residence at the college this summer, from Friday, Aug. 27, through Friday, Sept. 24.
Merriman will deliver an artist’s talk on Thursday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. in Cook Auditorium in conjunction with a closing exhibition from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. that evening in the De Pree Art Center and Gallery,
The public is invited to the artist’s talk, closing reception and exhibition. Admission to each is free.
Merriman is a sculpture, ceramic and installation artist who uses clay for its geologic properties. Building work from native resources tied to geographic borders and collective history, she uses materials, industry and sites as community points of connection. In Appalachia, she harvested Acid Mine Drainage yellow iron and used Logan Sewer Pipe’s clay to create work for Material Histories, Cultures of Resistance. Her recent exhibition in China came out of local clay, glazes and obsolete refractory brick. Merriman works in off-spaces and with industrial remnants due to her interest in so-called leftovers, evolving resources and discarded places. Landscapes and bodily topographies contextualize and record experiences that erode, slip and shift.
Currently, Merriman is pursuing work about extraction and re-routing. Her research interests include Lake Michigan’s basin resources and Holland’s underground pipes that divert 762 gallons per minute of coal station by-product.
Merriman earned her MFA from The Ohio State University and BFA from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Before accepting a teaching position in 2020 at Albion College, she taught at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, the University of Connecticut and Connecticut College. Merriman has participated in residencies in Germany, at Lanzhou City University in Gansu, China, Belden Brick Factory and Ohio University. She has exhibited in China and throughout Germany and the U.S.
The Borgeson Artist-in-Residence program is hosted by the college’s Department of Art and Art History, and was created through the generosity of Hope alumni Nancy and Clarke Borgeson. The 12-week summer residency supports the creation of new work through provision of a stipend as well as studio and living space on Hope’s campus. The artist-in-residence meets with department students and alumni, and concludes the residency with a solo exhibition and artist’s lecture at the De Pree Art Center and Gallery.
The De Pree Art Center and Gallery is located at 275 Columbia Ave., between 10th and 13th streets. The gallery is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with attendance by appointment, and guests may register on the gallery’s website at hope.edu/depree
Due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, Hope is currently requiring that masks be worn by all individuals while indoors on campus unless in their living space or alone in their work space.