The Mississippi State Art Gallery’s 2006-07 season continues this month with an exhibit of contemporary artist Io Palmer’s work.
This is a stark contrast with the previous exhibit, a collection of 17th- and 18th-century Japanese woodblock prints. Though Palmer has experience in multiple mediums, this particular exhibit showcases one specific and unique art form.
“I was trained as a ceramicist, and I’ve always drawn and kept a sketchbook,” Palmer said. “This body of work, called ‘Well Kept,’ is about my years of drawing and bringing these small, intimate little sketches out into a public arena.
“The show is comprised of two pieces. It sort of speaks to the internal and the external, public and private. The private is the small drawings of my sketchbook, and the public is the ‘cleaning ladies’ which are the large scale drawings.”
Palmer hopes that students can gain a new respect for drawing and understanding of its importance from her exhibit.
“I think [drawing] is so important in any medium, whatever you do,” Palmer said. “You can take notes with it. You can write. It’s a way of keeping a journal of our lives. Also, [students can] consider how drawing can be used as a finished body of work.”
Palmer’s career in art is partially due to the influence of her family. Her father both painted and sculpted, and her mother trained as a painter in Pittsburgh. This combination of genes gave Palmer an instinct for creating art.
Palmer attended Tyler School of Arts in Philadelphia as an undergraduate and the University of Arizona in graduate school, studying ceramics at both institutions.
Palmer was born in Greece, where she resided until age 7. Her family then moved to the United States, where she spent the remainder of her childhood in Pittsburgh. She teaches at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga.
Through Palmer’s work, the Mississippi State Art Gallery hopes to allow students to view contemporary art, as compared to the very traditional art in last month’s Japanese woodblock print gallery.
“[Palmer] sent a very brilliant visual package, letting us know she was seeking exhibit space and time,” gallery director Bill Andrews said. “We knew that we wanted our students to be exposed to some contemporary, conceptual work, which is what her package was all about: installation, site-specific work. We thought that would work very well for this gallery. We thought it would be fun to have something challenging, contemporary and conceptual.”
A few Mississippi State students will have an opportunity to work with Palmer herself on a project.
“She will be conducting a workshop with Critz Campbell’s sculpture students,” Andrews said. “She will be working with a variety of materials including wax and clay to produce works of art that follow a narrative through different media.”
“Teaching is very important to me,” Palmer said. “So the work we do in the workshop will be presented [in the gallery] as well. I always try to encourage a dialogue between teacher and student, and I brought some student work from the university that I teach at.”
The exhibit will be located in the gallery on the ground floor of McComas Hall. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Palmer’s art will be featured until Oct. 26.