Kevin Gisi

The day the art department faculty of UW-Eau Claire have eagerly been awaiting has finally come. Role-reversal has begun between students and faculty as the studio art professors prepare for their very own showcase: a chance to display their own work and inspire their students.

Haas Fine Arts Center’s Foster Gallery presents the faculty exhibition, Art and Design: “Some of Our Own.” The Foster Gallery sponsors an annual faculty showcase at the beginning of each school year.

With a week turnaround between exhibitions, gallery director Tom Wagener has collected and organized two or three pieces from each participating professor’s research, such as professor Jason Lanka’s winged backpack contraption that spans the width of the gallery.

“All of the studio professors come from different backgrounds,” said Christos Theo, chairman of the art department, who specializes in graphic design.

With this variability, the show offers a wide array of art and all sorts of media, including sculpture, video, animation, painting, printing, illustration and graphic design.

Wagener said some faculty stick to their guns, and others experiment with new media.

This event typically features two professors on an annual rotation. This year, the art department invited recent alumni who have moved on to graduate school or have made a name for themselves in the professional art world.

The exhibition includes works from alumni Greg Gossel, who gives comic book art a dark twist. Also displayed are graduate student Zach Stensen, currently at the University of Iowa, who presents a series of 14 prints arranged within a grid, and Min Sun Lee, an art professor at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, who specializes in graphic design.

Lucas Gluesenkamp, who works out of Minneapolis, and Jane Marie Ovanin, whose artwork emphasizes metal craftsmanship with the Rhode Island School of Design, are in the show as well.

Stensen and Ovanin are both graduates of UW-Eau Claire’s McNair Program, which encourages continued graduate education for first-generation and low-income students.

The beginning of the school year is marked with this opportunity to see professors and mentors in their own light, as well as the accomplishments of recent graduates, providing motivation and goals for students. It is only fitting that the year will then end with a student showcase of graduating seniors.

The show opens Thursday, Oct. 8. To attract the art illiterate, a small reception of food will be available to provide a full stomach and an open mind.

With the mixture of technique and materials, at least one piece is bound to be attention grabbing.

Theo said this mixture is “what it’s all about.”