University Art Gallery
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Exhibitions 2024-2025
The Don and Nancy Crouch Collection
August 19 - September 20, 2024 Reception: Tuesday, August 27, 4:30-6:00 I became a collector at age 12 in New Mexico finding pottery and arrowheads on my dad’s ranch. As a nineteen-year-old freshman in college, I started buying prints and paintings from fellow students and faculty. About this time, I began bringing Pre-Columbian art out of Mexico. All these early collecting activities cemented my love of Indigenous art of the Americas. At Iowa, I started collecting Mauricio Lasansky and bought my first David Hockney who taught at the University in the summer of 1965 on his way to California. The important aspect of collecting art is that it makes your life richer. It is a deep passion. A soulful expression. A collection says as much about the collector as it does about the subjects collected. Collecting is a restless pursuit, a great love, and as in love has ups and downs. It has given me more meaning and purpose to my life as an artist. In my studio, to be surrounded by great works of art offers a great amount of inspiration and motivation. To be successful, a collector must have a good eye and understanding knowledge of the subject. Nancy and I feel that it is important to share the art and hope that you enjoy the experience. -Don Crouch
Jodi Ruffner - Snapshots of Reverie
September 3 - September 26, 2024 ANNEX GALLERY Jodi Ruffner is a painter and mixed media artist whose work depicts her interest in the subjectivity of our individual perceptions and our ability to witness the wondrous, magical, even the numinous in the everyday. Jodi has had the opportunity to exhibit her work locally, nationally, and internationally. She has received several awards and grants including two Windgate Research Awards, the Swedlund Photography Award, the 2023 SIUC Purchase Award, as well as a residency at The Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland. In addition, her work has been published in both the “I Like Your Work” and “Friends of the Artist” catalogues. Jodi received her BFA from Penn State University and her MFA from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. She lives and works in southern Illinois.
Muyiwa Adeyanju - Roots and Routes
September 10 - October 17, 2024 Reception: Thursday, October 17, 4:30-6:00 Muyiwa Adeyanju, born in 1997 in Kwara State, Nigeria, holds an MFA in Drawing and Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His lifelong fascination with figures has honed his skill in accurately replicating them. Despite initially earning a National Diploma in Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Geophysics, he worked diligently to establish himself as an artist. In fall 2021, he was admitted to the SIUC Art Department. During his three years in graduate school, Muyiwa received numerous awards and recognition. He won the prestigious Windgate Research Scholarship Award, was featured in New American Paintings and Friend of the Artist publications and was honored as the Best Graduate Student in the School of Media Arts and Communications. Muyiwa employs oil, acrylic paints, and Dutch wax textiles (African fabric) to create collage figurative compositions. His work explores themes of identity, neocolonialism, family memories, and contemporary social issues. Having left his full-time academic position at a private Nigerian university, Muyiwa is now focusing on artworks that narrate his and others' experiences of migrating from their homeland to other countries.
Duke Oursler - Rural Route 1
October 1 - November 8, 2024 Reception: Tuesday. October 29, 4:30-6:00 Western Illinois University Art Professor, Duke Oursler, is a sculptor originally from rural southwest Kansas. Born the son of an oil pumper, his upbringing in a conservative Catholic culture allowed him to visit many large Catholic churches. As a young man, he was enthralled with much of the art that he would see in the cathedrals. He was specifically struck by the high relief stations of the cross exhibited at Saint Dominic’s Church in Garden City, Kansas. As Duke pursued his art career, he ran away from the archaic and strict rules of his raising exploring abstract and nonrepresentational sculptural works only to find that these works would often act as metaphors for stories told to him by his father and relatives. Focusing on writing and creating narratives, Duke has begun to illustrate stories that reference his rural blue-collar heritage. His recent body of work focuses on the virtues and vices of rural America.
Joe Turner - Two Halves of a Whole, All Taken Down
October 22 - November 13, 2024 Reception: Wednesday, November 13, 4:30-6:00 ANNEX GALLERY Joseph Wellington Turner is originally from Youngstown, Ohio, and has lived in Illinois since 1999. He holds a BFA in Painting from The Ohio University, conferred in 1997, and an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University, conferred in 2002. Joseph has been an instructor of art at the college level since 2000. He currently teaches at DePaul University, in Chicago, and has taught at that institution since 2018. He also teaches at Waubonsee Community College, in Sugar Grove, and has been with that school since 2005. A life-long practicing artist, Joseph presently resides in Chicago, where he maintains studio space at the Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St. Some recent showings of his art include solo exhibitions of paintings and works on paper held at the Clark Arts Center Gallery, Rockford University, and at the Laura A. Sprague Art Gallery, Joliet Junior College. He has had selected works included in the 76th Annual Salon Show at South Shore Arts in Munster, Indiana, included in the 80th National Midyear Exhibition at the Butler Museum of American Art, and published in Volume 40 of Studio Visit Magazine. Joseph also regularly exhibits as a resident artist at the Bridgeport Art Center.
