CLEMSON — Top artists in Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs at Clemson University, University of South Carolina and Winthrop University teamed with honors students at Clemson University in an undergraduate English Accelerated Composition course to explore and interpret the theme Corporeal Complexities: Bodies in Process. The end result is a statewide juried exhibition of MFA work curated by the honors students. The Coordinator of Museum Interpretation at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, Virginia Sweeney juried the exhibit. The exhibition runs until Jan. 29 with a Juror’s Discussion and Reception occurring Friday, Jan. 16, 6 – 7 p.m. in the Center for Visual Arts (CVA) – Lee Gallery on Clemson’s campus.
Corporeal Complexities: Bodies in Process Exhibit allows the participating artists to explore how an apparently permanent world of seemingly unchanging humans is actually changing quite rapidly. Changes add and intersect with one another to create layers of complexity. The MFA students have explored these complexities, placing the human body in context of an ever-changing world. The artists selected for this exhibition include Laken Bridges, Tanna Burchinal, Vivianne Carey, Lindsey Elsey, Alex Giannell, Lee Ann Harrison, Nina Kawar, Mary Jane King, Joel Murray, Brent Pafford, Caley Pennington, Thomas Seay, Hilary Siber, Moses Tsai, and Samantha Valdez.
This exhibition is the product of an extended collaboration between the Center for Visual Arts (CVA) and undergraduate honors students in English at Clemson University through the Clemson Curates initiative. Clemson Curates is the product of an interdisciplinary collaboration across the University to promote the arts. Faculty teach experiential-learning courses through a partnership with the CVA, allowing students to gain practical knowledge of how arguments are constructed and analyzed both within classrooms and in the broader world. These courses encourage students to consider different ways of constructing arguments as a core component of Clemson’s mission to emphasize writing across the disciplines. Students learn to consider the arts and visual rhetoric from a variety of perspectives and fields, providing them with a more comprehensive view––taking students from classroom-based knowledge to broader applications both inside and outside the arts.
The contributing honor students are Caroline Bales, Dustin Brecht, Jon Brownfield, Matthew Carson, Jonathan Drake, Meredith Ellis, Jake Flynn, David Gundana, Alexander Herd, Ethan Kirkland, Joseph Litts, Hannah Mace, Andrew Moore, Sophia Porach, Peter Rowan, Andrew Shumaker, Taylor Thompson, Katie Tobik, and Sean West. These students collaborated with several members of the Clemson University faculty and staff: Denise Woodward-Detrich, CVA Lee Gallery director; John Morgenstern, visiting assistant professor of English; Kathy Edwards, research and collection development librarian for the Gunnin Library; Jan Lay, Clemson 
computing and information technology technical learning instructor; Meredith Mims McTigue, CVA/art department marketing and public relations director; and Nathan Newsome, CVA Lee Gallery intern.
The Center for Visual Arts – Lee Gallery at Clemson University will be open for this exhibit M – TH, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (excluding University holidays) and is located at 1-101 Lee Hall. The street address is 323 Fernow Street, Clemson, SC 29634. The Exhibit as well as Juror’s Discussion and Reception occurring Friday, Jan. 16, 6 – 7 p.m. in the Lee Gallery is free and open to the public thanks in part to CVA generous donors. For more information about the CVA – Lee Gallery, contact Denise Woodward-Detrich, Director at woodwaw@clemson.edu.
