Alliance, OH – The University of Mount Union is currently hosting the exhibit, “Collective Bargaining|Beneath the Fuzzy Surface” featuring the work of Ken Arthur and Georgia Tambasis. 

The exhibit will be on display in the Sally Otto Art Gallery through September 30. The artists’ reception will be held on September 13 from 4-6 p.m. 

Arthur, a self-taught artist from Mansfield, uses found objects to create his sculpture that takes the form of boxes on pedestals. Inspiration for the pieces comes from pianos, typewriters, machines and farm equipment, which Arthur takes apart, reassembling the bits and pieces into wood boxes. A typical summer is spent hunting and gathering at estate sales, auctions, flea markets and abandoned spaces in search of sculptural elements. He has converted three large grain bins on his property into gallery spaces. 

Tambasis’s work includes monoprints, small oils and encaustics. She looks at memories or traces of the past as color, shape, line and image left behind on the paper or wood. She cuts, burns, slashes, and wipes to build layers in her work.

“I hope that the minute changes of each layer, seeing beneath the fuzzy surface, allows for close observation in the unfolding - not just of the image - but in the presence of things in our external and internal world,” said Tambasis. 

The common theme in the work and process of both artists is collection and lamina or layering of thought, of vision and of one’s life. 

The exhibit and reception are both free and open to the public. For more information about this and upcoming exhibits, contact Gallery Coordinator, Carol Opatken at (330) 823-4968 or opatkec@mountunion.edu.