Julie Bowland, director of the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, describes the second exhibition of Valdosta State University’s 2016-2017 arts season as “contemplative, conceptual, and tactile,” a group of “two- and three-dimensional mixed media works” known collectively as Material Transformations.  
 
Material Transformations highlights the creative skills and imaginations of four female artists — Diana L. Baumbach of Laramie, Wyoming; Micaela de Vivero of Newark, Ohio; Abhidnya Ghuge of Tyler, Texas; and Margaret Smithers-Crump of Houston, Texas.  
 
“White on white paper obsessively pierced with concentric circles, giant chrysalises implying change, translucent tornado forms hovering in space, woodblock prints covering bent and folded paper covering gallery walls in unpredictable patterns” are just a sampling of the works featured in Material Transformations, says Bowland, a professor in VSU’s Department of Art and noted landscape painter. The exhibition opens Monday, Sept. 19, with a public reception and gallery talk featuring artist Smithers-Crump from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
 
“My work focuses on vulnerability, growth, powerlessness, and transformation within natural cycles of life,” Smithers-Crump writes in her artist statement. “It addresses the passing of time, the maturation of beauty, and the inevitability of disintegration. This dual relationship of death and renewal has historically been at the epicenter of philosophy, mythology, and diverse systems of belief.”
 
The Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery is located on the first floor of VSU’s Fine Arts Building, at the intersection of Oak Street and Brookwood Drive. It is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays. Admission is free of charge.
 
Material Transformations runs through Friday, Oct. 7.
 
Contact Julie Bowland at (229) 333-5835 or [email protected] to learn more or to schedule a guided tour of the exhibition.