Andy Warhol Photographs, African and Oceanic Art, and The Senior Group Exhibition Set to Open at The College of Wooster Art Museum

Exhibitions will be in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery and the Sussel Gallery

NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is featured in this 1978 photo from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (New York, N.Y.). It is one of more than 60 photographs that will be featured in "Andy Warhol: Photographs 1975-1986," which will be on display at The College of Wooster Art Museum March 23 through May 10.

WOOSTER, Ohio - A selection of Polaroids and black-and-white photographs by pop-art icon Andy Warhol, African and Oceanic art from The David and Karina Rilling Collection, and more than two dozen student works by 13 senior studio art majors comprise the final six weeks of the season at The College of Wooster Art Museum.

"Andy Warhol: Photographs 1975-1986," is an exhibition of more than 60 photographs of the famous and almost famous - from NBA legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar, 1978, to curator Erika Hoffmann, 1980, to Gianni Versace, 1980. Given to Wooster by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York City in 2008, Warhol's photographs will be exhibited in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery located in the Ebert Art Center (1220 Beall Ave.) March 23 through May 10. The opening reception will take place on Thursday, March 25, from 6-8 p.m. with a Gallery Talk by John Siewert, associate professor of art history at Wooster, at 7 p.m. There will also be a Gallery Walk on Wednesday, April 14, from noon to 1 p.m. with presentations by students in Siewert's Contemporary Art class, who contributed research and text to the exhibition, and two presentations of Dance in the Gallery (Wednesday, April 28, and Thursday, April 29, from 7-8 p.m.) by students enrolled in Professor of Theatre and Dance Kim Tritt's choreography class.

Warhol's photography served as a means to examine how the reproductive medium actively manufactures celebrity, and, ultimately, identity itself. According to Jenny Moore, curator of the Warhol Foundation's Photographic Legacy Program, Warhol's consistency in shooting reveals the true idiosyncrasies of his subjects. "Often, he would shoot a person or event with both cameras, cropping one in Polaroid color as a 'photograph' and snapping the other in black and white as a 'picture,'" said Moore. "By presenting both kinds of images side by side, viewers move back and forth between moments of Warhol's 'art,' 'work,' and 'life' - inseparable parts of a fascinating whole."

"The David and Karina Rilling Collection of African and Oceanic Art," given to the College in 2009, will be on display March 23 through April 18 in the Sussel Gallery. The exhibition consists of 41 objects from Sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, including 21 cooking and ritual vessels from Nigeria, Mali, and the Côte d'Ivoire. Also included are a Guinean drum, two wood ladders from Mali, a full-length, textile masquerade from Nigeria, nine hats from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and five food bowls from Papua New Guinea.

Finally, the Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition, which runs April 23 through May 10, features work by 13 Wooster senior studio art majors, each of whom will exhibit art selected from their one-person Senior Independent Study exhibition (Wooster's nationally acclaimed senior capstone experience in which students work one on one with a faculty mentor). Lindsay Lutz, Hannah Matthews, Katharine Tatum, Tyler Scheidt, Alice Case, Sarah Harbottle, Benjamin Katz, Allegra Angelini, Nicholas Knodt, Sarah Manning, Jongseok Oh, Kevin Reiswig, and Calvin Todd will participate in the exhibition as well as the Senior Research Symposium on Friday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the students will be present to discuss their art. Art history seniors will present poster sessions in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery at the same time.

The College of Wooster Art Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. All receptions, lectures, exhibitions, and performances are free and open to the public, and group and class tours are available. Additional information is available by phone (330-263-2388) or online.