HSU Insider

Emotion and Human Interaction on Display in the Ira M. Taylor Memorial Art Gallery

• By Dave Coffield
• Posted October 23, 2008 9:25 AM
• 0 Comments

Teeth Good

Lizard corpses brought in by cats, wilting flowers that fail to make their way to the trash, the view from the drawing classroom, the collection of "studio" bones, broken Christmas ornaments, toy soldiers, a stethoscope and a curtain that doesn't conceal. As Xenia Fedorchenko describes her original mixed media drawings and prints, currently featured in the Ira M.Taylor Memorial Art Gallery, she is sure to note that the pieces evolve from the particulars of her own life.

A former student of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, known for its emphasis on traditional art training, Fedorchenko's work is in the permanent collections of several museums across the nation as well as numerous university and private collections. Xenia Fedorchenko is the Assistant Professor of Art at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas where she teaches printmaking, drawing, and color theory.

The series of drawings, initially based on photographs found on the curb, has to do with a desire to intertwine personal memory and sense of reality with a stranger's private life and interactions. Of her drawings and the message she desires the pieces to convey, Fedorchenko explains, "I have chosen to omit and abstract identifying features and details from my drawings to make the viewer aware that they are engaged with something private yet common to multiple generations and cultures."

Also included in the exhibition is a suite of prints based on Sky Mall Magazine. Sky Mall offers a broad range of products intended to appeal to the traveling professional. The basis for the amusingly honest portraits was formed on Fedorchenko's initial flight to her current location of Beaumont. She expresses, "On first encounter, I was shocked to find facile and packaged solutions to real issues such as social standing, relationships or ageing. I was also intrigued by products that address problems that I, as a traveling professional, should have been experiencing: how to keep tabs on my family, pets and employees at all times or count and mark my currency. The terrifically outlandish if not morally questionable manufacturing of "need" has led to this series."

Steve Neves, Assistant Professor of Art for Hardin-Simmons University's School of Music and Fine Arts, praises the artist, observing that "Xenia Fedorchenko's mixed media works are powerfully visceral. Her masterful use of printmaking techniques and drawing processes are integrated into the production of deeply layered and emotionally charged images."

Fedorchenko attended Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, where she received her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Painting in 2000 and also taught portfolio development workshops. In 2006, she earned her M.F.A. in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she taught figure drawing and intaglio courses as a graduate student. Prior to joining the faculty at Lamar in 2006, Fedorchenko was employed as a printer at Milestone Graphics, a private contract print shop in Connecticut specializing in intaglio and lithographic editions.

The prints and drawings will be featured in the Ira M. Taylor Memorial Art Gallery located in the Frost Center for the Visual Arts from October 22 through November 14, 2008. A reception marking the conclusion of the exhibit will be held November 14, 2008 from 5-6:30 pm. The display is the third scheduled exhibition in a series of eight for 2008-2009. The gallery is free to the public and is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm or by appointment. For more information, call 325-670-2223.