UA’s Paul Jones Artist Lectures Bring Renowned, Original Voices in the World of Art to Campus

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Cutting-edge artists represented in the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art will speak during the spring 2009 semester at The University of Alabama.

The series, called the Paul R. Jones Artist Lectures, begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, with Fahamu Pecou, whose installation “Santuario de Los Reyes” represented the Panamanian Artist Collective Taller Portobello at the 16th annual Iberoamericano Festival in Cadiz, Spain. The event in 205 Gorgas Library is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

The lecture series is connected with the October 2008 gift of 1,700 pieces of art to UA by Jones, an Atlanta collector. The collection, which was valued at $4.8 million, includes one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of 20th century African-American art in the world. UA’s art and art history department in the College of Arts and Sciences received the gift. Each artist in the lecture series has at least one work in the collection.

“The artists were selected because of their inclusion in the Jones Collection and because they represent some of the diverse approaches to contemporary art-making,” said Dr. Amalia Amaki, professor of art history at UA, who organized the lectures. “The idea evolved when I contemplated ways in which to enhance the learning experiences of students enrolled in the contemporary art course I am teaching this spring. Then, I realized there were broader opportunities for the artists to have impact throughout the campus and the Tuscaloosa community.”

Pecou, the first lecturer, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1975 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and Digital Media in 1997 from the Atlanta College of Art. Since 2005, Pecou has had several solo exhibitions throughout the United States and has participated in numerous group shows and international art fairs including Art Chicago and Art Basel. His work has also been featured in many publications including Harper’s Magazine and The International Review of African American Art.

The series continues on Wednesday, March 4, with Freddie Styles and Mario Petrirena. Petrirena was born in Cuba and resides in Decatur, Ga. He received the Bachelor of Arts from the University of Florida and a Master of Fine Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Craftsmen. His sculptures, installations and works on paper explore his dual heritage, often probing into his personal history and private memories as a young boy who was one among 14,000 children exported from Cuba to the United States in 1962.

Styles was born in Madison, Ga., and has lived most of his life in Atlanta. He graduated from Morris Brown College and creates abstract paintings and collages inspired by nature. An avid gardener, his forms are reminiscent of organic vegetation that avoid literal interpretation

On Wednesday, March 11, Aimee Miller will speak. The Atlanta-based artist received a Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Delaware. An abstractionist, her works are characteristically untitled, painting-based works “connected to something tangible and something unconscious.”

The artist for the fourth lecture, scheduled for Wednesday, April 1, will be announced later.

The lectures are sponsored by the department of art and art history and the Office of the Dean with additional support from the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, African American Studies and the Black Faculty and Staff Association.

UA’s College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.