Dean’s Work at HU Gallery

HUNTINGTON, Ind. — Huntington University is pleased to announce that artist Katherine Dean will bring her art for exhibit to the Robert E. Wilson Gallery on September 29. Titled Preservation Corrosion, the exhibit will remain on display through November 30.

Dean is a visual artist based in Indiana. According to her website, she describes her work as existing “at the merger of traditional and contemporary photography. By exploring modern ideas and imagery with historic and/or manipulated traditional processes, Dean addresses the ideas of time, memory, and space.”

According to Julie Dungan, director of the Robert E. Wilson Gallery, the importance of an exhibit like Dean’s at Huntington University is threefold:

• It exposes students and audiences to a different style of creative expression
• It offers the opportunity to learn from Dean on her technique and experience
• It gives Dean the chance to share her work with HU and community, for us to interact with/ponder her photographs

Barb Michel, associate professor of art and chair of the Department of Art + Design, concurs.

“It is important for our students to learn from and be exposed to professionals who specialize in areas we cover in the various HU art programs. Bringing a professional photographer to campus this semester is intentional since half of our art majors are currently taking a photography class. In addition to sharing a current body of work in the gallery, Dean will put on a workshop for all of the art students. Both of these experiences will give our students a deeper understanding of contemporary photography and what it looks like on a professional level,” says Michel.

Dean earned an MFA in photography in 2017 from Memphis College of Art and also holds a BFA in photography from the University of North Florida. The abrupt transition from the landscape of Florida to Tennessee influenced the manner in which Dean approaches the creative process. In addition to lecturing, Dean has also spent time working with a small group of artists in Memphis, Tennessee, creating large scale public sculptures. Her work has been exhibited nationally in a number of juried shows. Currently Dean lives in Lafayette, Indiana, where she is working on a new body of work exploring the dissolution of memory and time.

Huntington University is a comprehensive Christian college of the liberal arts offering graduate and undergraduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. U.S. News & World Report ranks Huntington among the best colleges in the Midwest, and Forbes.com has listed the university as one of America’s Best Colleges. Founded in 1897 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Huntington University is located on a contemporary lakeside campus in northeast Indiana. The nonprofit university is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU).