Works by graphic design artists Bobby Campbell and Ben Van Dyke will be on display in the Rowe Arts Gallery starting Monday, Jan. 14. The paired exhibitions, “Action Figures” and “Knowledge Systems” will be exhibited through Friday, Feb. 1. An opening reception, featuring comments from the artists, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 15, in the gallery.
Campbell, assistant professor of graphic design in the College of Arts + Architecture, produces graphic design as part of a blended art and design practice. His works recast the vast visual stimulus of post-modernity into newly designed, mix-matched bodies. These images catalogue the living and the dead - spiders and tigers, bicycles and banjos, foxes and fires, high-rises and sports cars. His characters are often outsiders: pioneers and priests, thieves and tinkers, hot-rodders and horse-riders. Hand-drawn and painted forms echo the angularity, density and precision of computer imagery.
“I utilize my formal and conceptual motivations consistently across different media,” said Campbell. “Images may be created on paper with casein paint or on plastic with an airbrush or on a panel with oil paints or on the computer with a stylus and software.”
In 2006-07, Campbell completed a year-long residency at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin as part of a Fulbright Fellowship. Prior to teaching at UNC Charlotte, he was assistant professor at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
The display “Action Figures” features digital drawings in plexiglass enclosures, along with installation works. More of Campbell’s work can be viewed on the Web.
Van Dyke leads the communication design program in the Department of Visual Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 2006, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the Netherlands, where he was artist-in-residence at NLXL in The Hague. During this time, he lent his talents to the implementation of experimental practices for the ministries of education and culture with an analysis on cultural implications. He has continued his research through site-specific installations of experimental typography and has been invited to exhibit his work across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
“Knowledge Systems” includes a combination of large, limited edition prints and installation works more typical of Van Dyke’s recent work.