Colby-Sawyer Hosts ‘Unassigned’ Featuring the Creativity of Independent Artists

Colby-Sawyer College’s Fine and Performing Arts Department presents “Unassigned,” an exhibition of independent works of art, craft and design by practicing designers and design instructors. Invited artists hail from across the country and will exhibit experimental videos, photography, books, posters, collages, prints, letterpress broadsides, installations and systems.

An opening reception will be held at the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery in the Sawyer Fine Art Center from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28. The exhibition runs through Tuesday, Feb. 23. The opening reception and gallery exhibition are free and open to the public; the gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Concord resident Nancy Sepe, graphic designer in Colby-Sawyer’s Office of College Communications and adjunct faculty member in the Fine and Performing Arts Department, is one of two area artists in the exhibition. The versatile Sepe will show two sculptures, a digital print and an animated short. She holds a B.F.A. from Alfred University and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Farah Rizvi Doyle ’05, a resident of Wilder, Vt., holds a B.F.A. from Colby-Sawyer and an M.F.A. from Vermont College of Fine Arts, both in graphic design. A designer at White River Junction’s Nomad Communications, her exhibited work will explore a hybrid cultural identity through visual design. Her work, she says, “is a demonstration of reflective self-discovery and cultural connection through making,” a way for her to achieve a “deeper understanding” of her identity as a Pakistani American.

Wade Lough, associate professor of graphic and animation design at Longwood University in Virginia, will also be exhibited. His philosophy for design is “about getting two seemingly incompatible ideas to fall madly in love with each other. As simple as that statement may sound,” says Lough, “it is hard work playing design matchmaker.”

Other artists include Jarred Elrod, assistant professor of art at Texas Tech University; Diane Fox, senior lecturer at the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee; Mark Jamra, type designer, graphic designer and associate professor at the Maine College of Art in Portland; Zachariah Kahn, freelance creative director and graphic designer of Los Angeles, Calif.; Shannon McCarthy, visiting assistant professor at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W. Va. ; Martha Ormiston, art director at Fission’s Los Angeles office; Vickie Phipps, assistant professor of art at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.; Deb Shmerler, associate professor of graphic design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and Neil Ward and Sarah McCoy, assistant professors of graphic design at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

For more information about the exhibition, please contact Gallery Director and Sonja C. Davidow ’56 Endowed Chair in the Fine and Performing Arts Bert Yarborough at byarborough@colby-sawyer.edu or 603.526.3459.