Trace Elements: New Work at Oberlin

“The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, one of the finest college art museums in the country, is always worth a visit,” wrote art critic Steven Litt in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in December. “The leading attraction is a handsome survey of recent work by the six members of Oberlin’s studio art faculty.”

Called Trace Elements: New Work at Oberlin, the exhibit featured prints and paintings by John Pearson and Sarah Schuster, photographs by Pipo Nguyen-Duy, installations by Johnny Coleman and Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias, and a video installation by Rian Brown. The works included a variety of media, such as drawing, sculpture, sound, and new media—all linked by the common theme of landscape.

Organized by Stephen D. Borys, curator of Western Art at the AMAM, the exhibit was the first faculty show to be held at the museum in more than 30 years. “These artists’ influence and vision are keenly felt by many students whose work they help develop through teaching, research, and ongoing dialogue about art,” Borys says.

For more information, visit www.oberlin.edu/allenart.

Johnny Coleman, A Landscape Convinced: For Nyima, (detail), 2001. Rocks, flowers, herbs, sunflowers, leaves, shoes, slate, hair, flour scoop, rowboat, beeswax, toolboxes, shovel handles, sound, 500 sq. ft. installation (approx.).


Rian Brown, Breadcrumbs, 2005. Still. Triple video projection with sound, 16 min.

Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias, Collections: Our Family’s Shoes, 2001. Shoes and paint, varied dimensions.
John Pearson, Yorkshire Series: Regeneration-Continuum: AMAM Series: 150, Panels A-K (detail), 2005. Silkscreen inks and pencil on paper, each 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.