'FL3TCH3R' jurors' talk

JOHNSON CITY – Artists Cheryl Goldsleger and Larry Millard sifted through several hundred entries to make selections for this year’s “FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Social and Politically Engaged Art” at East Tennessee State University’s Reece Museum, which runs through Dec. 14.

Goldsleger and Millard will share their insights on the exhibit and the art of social and political expression on Thursday, Nov. 1, in a jurors’ talk at 5 p.m. in Reece Museum. The 2018 “FL3TCH3R” awards ceremony and reception will follow at 6 p.m.

Rather than a specific topic standing out as thematic, the courage of the artists most struck these jurors as they studied the works from across the U.S. and from numerous international countries.

“We believe the artists who submitted to the ‘FL3TCH3R Exhibit’ show a great amount of courage and bravery in the subjects they tackled,” Goldsleger and Millard wrote in their jurors’ statement. “The artworks accepted . . . demonstrate clarity of vision in their approach to difficult and often personally meaningful topics. These artists are in some way similar to how surgeons make incisions and extract a malignancy. The selected artists extract the essence of a problem to offer it to viewers for inspection and further analysis.”

With the addition of an award in memory of Jack Schrader, who was a faculty member and chair of the ETSU Department of Art and Design, the “FL3TCH3R Exhibit” awards now total nearly $1,000. Media in this year’s exhibit include fiber, jewelry/metals, painting, photography, digital, sculpture, printmaking, video, graphic design, ceramics and 2D and 3D mixed media.

Goldsleger’s own drawings and paintings have been exhibited in Washington, D.C., New York, Virginia and Tel Aviv and are in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Fogg Museum, the High Museum, the Israel Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the New Orleans Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art, among others.

Millard, who received his B.F.A. in sculpture from ETSU and M.F.A. from Washington University, has shown nationally and internationally in more than 190 exhibitions, including a piece at Johnson City’s Founders Park. A professor emeritus at The University of Georgia, he taught sculpture and design for nearly 40 years.

The “FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Socially and Politically Engaged Art” was established in 2013 by ETSU art professor Wayne and attorney Barbara Dyer in memory of their son and by graphic designer Carrie Dyer in memory of her brother, Fletcher, an ETSU senior in graphic design who passed away in a motorcycle accident in 2009. The “FL3TCH3R Exhibit” helps fund the annual Fletcher H. Dyer Memorial Scholarship for an ETSU Art & Design student.

For more information, call the Reece Museum at 423-439-4392.  For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at 423-439-8346.