Recent Works
June 28 - August 5, 2010
- Reception: July 8, 6-8 p.m., gallery lounge,
- live music by Jordan Kaye
- Gallery Talk at 7 p.m.
Illinois artist Patrick Earl Hammie’s collection of recent paintings, which investigate the human figure and its historical representations, will be on display Monday, June 28 through Thursday, August 5 at the Parkland Art Gallery. Enjoy light refreshments, music by Jordan Kaye, and a brief talk by Hammie about his work during an artist reception on Thursday, July 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gallery lounge.
Currently serving as assistant professor of painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hammie says his latest works explore “identity, maturation, gender politics, and (mis)conceptions of race as constructed in contemporary art. Blending traditions of the Old Masters with contemporary modes of representation, these works explore the tension between power and vulnerability and present visual alternatives to how male artists have historically represented themselves in the nude.
“I work to reinvent and remix ideal beauty and heroic nudity. Inspiration and intention in these works stem from the continued visible acts of violence such as discrimination, xenophobia, forcible colonization and relocation, sexism, and war seen throughout the world and at home. These masculine traits are present and thrive through all ethnicities, sexes, and social classes and sit at the core of these and many debated issues. Drawing from my history as a son, a male, and an African American struggling to synthesize past adversity, I enter this conversation to keep a light on the roots of these effects, and share a personal effort to reconcile inner duality, transcend typical masculine ideals, and re-imagine a new balance.”
Patrick Earl Hammie earned a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Drawing and minor in Psychology from Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, in 2004. The New Haven, Connecticut native also earned a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Connecticut in 2008. His honors include the 2008 Alice C. Cole Class of 1942 Fellowship in Studio Art from Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts; a 2010 Merit Award from Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota; and a Purchase Award from Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hammie has lectured and exhibited at venues across the United States and abroad.
Image: Homunculus, oil on canvas, 84 x 60 inches