The Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall hosts another exhibition, starting today and running through Nov. 13. The show, entitled “Reaction Formation” consists of 25 digital drawings by Chad Anderson, a graduate student in the art department. Anderson also includes five drawings from a previous series in his show. The drawings are small, intricate pictures made with bright colors. The lines are scratchy and bright, and have a tantrum-like quality. They’re energetic, confusing and full of interesting shapes and forms. Although some of the pictures seem evocative of images, none of them contain actual recognizable figures, yet this was Anderson’s plan. “I’ve been researching obsessive behavioral studies and I began to realize that my personality has some of the same characteristics that I was reading about in my research,” he said.
Anderson said that this series is built upon past themes in his artwork.
“The work before this work was a series of self-portraits. I’ve been doing those for years, ” he said. “And they previously had symbols and icons that related directly to my own obsessions. So this work is a progression past that. The symbols are removed in this series, and so they (the pictures) are a linear weaving of the characteristics of my personality and the way it deals with obsessions.”
Although there are many pictures within the show, they all look similar to each other and must be viewed within the strict context of the series. Anderson created the pictures in Photoshop and only allowed himself the use of a small range of colors.
He also restricted his pen size and gave each picture the same-sized border. His drawings have a musicality, as well, that links them to each other. Although they are all closely related to each other, they seem like separate movements in a large piece of music, linked together by the criteria with which he limited the series.
The result is a quite personal body of work presented in an almost impersonal manner. The drawings can have the meaning that the viewer assigns to them, yet the themes in the drawings are recurring and similar. So, no matter what the pictures appear to be, they definitely relate to the other pieces in the show and suggest the obsessions that Anderson intended.
The opening reception for this show occurs on Thursday, Oct. 31 from 7-9 p.m. and is open to the public. The gallery will be open for the duration of the show from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1-4p.m. on Sundays.