Sergio Soave, chair of the Division of Art in West VirginiaUniversity’s College of Creative Arts, will exhibit a series of new work in a one-person show entitled �€?Carnivale�€? at the DiegoRiveraMuseum in Gaunajuato, Mexico, this month. Soave also will present a gallery talk at the museum at the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, March 18.
The exhibit will include 14 new paintings on canvas that were created collaboratively with Creative Arts Technology of West Palm Beach, Fla. The works utilize new digital output technologies, resulting in original oil paintings.
�€?Carnivale�€? continues Soaves investigation of oral history, exploring an ongoing, intergenerational saga of his family. Using a framework of �€?small stories,�€? the work incorporates issues of personal identity to form a complex web of visual connections. Familiar images such as cakes, amusement rides, mirrors, toys and balloons that suggest celebration, thrill and anticipation are woven with biological references which lead to memories and ideas about genealogy and heredity.
�€?Relationships between art and medical science, technology and pop culture are explored visually and their relevance to a familial history is examined,�€? Soave said. �€?Each element of the complex, layered composition relates to a family affected by a genetic medical condition. The �€~small storiesshow how various family members deal with this information.�€?
The DiegoRiveraMuseum is in the birthplace of the famous Mexican muralist painter Diego Rivera (1886-1957), who is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The first floor depicts the home the way it was when the Rivera family lived there in the late 19th century. The second and third floors house about 80 of the artists works.
Soaves exhibition and lecture continues the partnership and collaboration between the University of Guanajuato and the Division of Art at WVU . Past activities have included faculty and student exchanges and faculty exhibitions. A new summer program will take 10 WVU art students to Mexico for three weeks of study in studio art and art history, beginning in May 2003.
Soaves exhibition and lecture are made possible through the generous support of the WVU Office of International Programs, a WVU Faculty Development Grant, the College of Creative Arts and the University of Guanajuato.
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Soave is professor of printmaking at WVU , in addition to serving as chair of the Division of Art. He received a Master of Fine Art degree from WVU in 1987. His computer works, lithographs, etchings and silkscreen prints have been included in more than 100 invitational and juried regional, national and international exhibitions, as well as numerous solo or two-person showings. His work is represented in E.C. Cunninghams book on contemporary printmaking, �€?Printmaking: A Primary Form of Expression,�€? and in �€?Contemporary American Printmaking,�€? published by Jilin Fine Arts Publishing. His works also are included in many public and private collections.
His grants and fellowships include a WVU Radiological Consultants Summer Fellowship, a Canada Council Explorations Grant, a West Virginia Artist Fellowship and three WVU Senate Research Grants. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Frans Masereel Studio in Belgium, at the University of Georgias Cortona Program and at the Peacock Printmakers Workshop in Aberdeen, Scotland.