The University of Olivet will present “The Past is Present” by Deborah Rockman on Sept. 1 – 29, 2022. A reception will be held on Friday, Sept. 9, 5 – 7 p.m. The exhibition and reception will be held at the Kresge Foundation Art Gallery inside the Riethmiller Blackman Art Building. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
Deborah Rockman
An artist and teacher for over 40 years, Deborah Rockman is a professor emeritus of art at Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) of Ferris State University. In 1993, she was the first woman and the youngest person to receive a full professorship at KCAD. She received her Master of Fine Arts in drawing and printmaking from the University of Cincinnati. Rockman’s award-winning work in drawing, photomontage, mixed media and digital drawing has been exhibited in numerous solo, invitational and group exhibitions in the United States and China. Among Rockman’s accomplishments, she was responsible for creating the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in drawing programs at KCAD in 2008, with approval received from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design in 2009.
“In response to my experiences, I am an artist who identifies as a social/cultural critic,” Rockman said. “Through my work, I critique social/cultural practices and their often unrecognized contradictions. Through a variety of sources, we are told how to look, what to feel, what to believe, who to fear, who to admire, who to hate. Contemporary media barrages us with news, information, images and advertisements. Juxtaposed and woven together is the slaughter of innocent civilians with the newest fashion trends; the exploitation of laborers with the stock market’s gains and losses; the lack of accessible drugs for treating diseases with pharmaceutical endorsements … in response, distinctions between the benign and the malignant are often extinguished. Images that support the false notion that ‘all is well’ are seamlessly blended with images that reveal the truth of pain and suffering. Ours is often an experience of duality, of parallel worlds of truth and deception. Extremes of ‘beauty’ are not possible, cannot be fully comprehended, without extremes of ‘ugliness’ with which to compare them. Once compared, it is hard to untangle the lovely from the disturbing.”
For more information, contact Gary Wertheimer, professor of art, at 269-749-7627. Learn more about The University of Olivet by contacting the Office of Admission at 800-456-7189 or admissions@uolivet.edu.