The Mountain and the Bumblebee: Traveling exhibition comes to College

The Mountain and the Bumblebee, a group show featuring art and poetry, will be exhibited March 25 – April 22, 2016, in Pennsylvania College of Art & Design’s Main Gallery. 204 N Prince Street, Lancaster, PA 17602.

According to curator Chris McGinnis, “In 1842 the geologist and land surveyor John C. Frémont led a prestigious expedition to explore the Rocky Mountain territory. In his travel log Frémont records an unlikely high‐altitude encounter with a bumblebee where he imagines each of them to be the first of their species ever to brave such geological extremes. This unlikely encounter is suggestive of America’s unique brand of landscape nationalism that has historically attempted to reconcile both expansionist and conservationist thought. Romantic descriptions of Fremont’s adventures were published in the Emigrant’s Guide to California and effectively united the interests of science and nature within the cultural framework of national inheritance.  After all, “landscapes are culture before they are nature; constructs of the imagination projected onto wood and water and rock.”

Work by Gwyneth Scally.

“The Mountain and the Bumblebee brings together selected works by contemporary artists and poets who confront broadly defined notions of landscape as both cultural icon and raw material.  Working in a variety of media including photography, sculpture, painting, digital media and poetic verse, featured artists maneuver the complex web of references contributing to the understanding of landscape. Scenes from Hollywood westerns abut survey photographs and miniature paintings to highlight America’s often‐contradictory role as both steward and exploiter of the land.”

Events surrounding the exhibit:

• Friday March 25: Curator’s Talk, Chris McGinnis, 10 am, Atrium, PCA&D
• Friday April 1: “Chiques Rock and the Bumblebee,” Geological Talk by Jeff Howe, 10 am, Atrium, PCA&D
• Friday April 1: Opening Reception, 5 – 8 pm, Main Gallery, PCA&D
• Friday April 1: Landscape Poetry Reading hosted by Linda Brown, 7 pm, Atrium, PCA&D

Participating artists include:

• Rick Barot, poet, Tacoma, WA,
• Patrick Bizarro poet, Indiana, PA
•  Robin Clarke, poet, Pittsburgh, PA
• Mathew Conboy, artist and photographer, Pittsburgh, PA
• Todd Davis, poet, Altoona, PA
• Wesley Dunning, poet, Indiana, PA
• Heather Green, artist, Tucson, AZ
• B.A. Harrington, artist, Indiana, PA
• Chele Isaac, artist, Madison, WI
• Chris McGinnis, artist, Pittsburgh, PA
• Erika Osborne, painter, Fort Collins, CO
• Josh Reiman, artist, Pittsburgh, PA
• Gwyneth Scally, artist, New York, NY
• Meg Shevenock, artist and poet, Los Angeles, CA

Chris McGinnis is an artist, curator and educator working in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, with over ten solo exhibitions and over 40 group exhibitions in recent years. He has created projects for the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and The Rivers of Steel Heritage Area. He is co-founder of the Pittsburgh-based Alloy Arts Organization and regularly attends national and international artist-in-residence programs. His work has been published in the National Studio Visit Magazine, European Art Magazine, The MFA Now catalog, Manifest’s International Painting Annual as well as numerous local and university publications including Pittsburgh’s Post Gazette and The Tribune Review.

Chris has worked for institutions across the country including Carnegie Mellon University and The University of Arizona. He is currently Assistant Professor of Art at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Director of the University’s Kipp Gallery, where the Mountain and the Bumblebee was first exhibited.