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UA Museum of Art hosts exhibition of faculty's works

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat Sculpting graduate student Ladd Pepke gets a closer look at David Christiana's art work yesterday afternoon at the faculty art opening at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The 1999 faculty art exhibition will be on display from Oct. 3- 31.

If the Media Arts department decided to screen all their films simultaneously on the same screen, the experience would be ruined. Similarly, it would be an equally bad idea for the Theater Arts department to put on all their plays on the same stage. It would be complete confusion. However, the UA Museum of Art's 1999 Art Faculty Exhibition only enhances the experience by combining the works of the Art Department's faculty in one locale.

The annual event, running from Oct. 3-31, is an opportunity for art students to see what the faculty is doing in their own studios so that they can connect with classroom curriculum. Non-art students get the chance to see artists that normally are exhibited around the country, even around the world, in one place. Additionally, gallery-goers can get an idea of what is happening at the UA in various art media.

This year's featured artist is associate professor of Art David Christiana, who has done illustrations for 14 children's picture books and has authored four of his own. He has also been invited to illustrate a chapter of "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Steven Spielberg for his Starbright Foundation. "Recent Work" is a conglomeration of his commercial and private works over the past three years, including his time spent in Florence, Italy.

"His work, whether commercial, fine art or personal, is always extremely imaginative, almost going into fantasy," says Art Department Head Andy Polk of Christiana. "He sometimes goes into dark images, usually working with the human figure, that are very intensive and have a highly expressive content."

In the classroom, Christiana is a highly sought after professor of illustration. He demands a lot from his students, stressing craftsmanship and knowledge of art history.

Another point of interest in the exhibition will be Polk's multimedia CD-rom project. Utilizing his extensive 15-year experience with computers, Polk has created a comprehensive, fully interactive work that patrons will be able to encounter and explore during the exhibition. Images, words and sounds will be open to discovery, a territory that would take more time than the museum-goers will have time to explore.

Both Christiana and Polk will participate in "ArtBreak," a forum which allows interested people to hear the artist talk about their work. Christiana is scheduled to appear Wednesday and Polk will follow a week later.