Muskegon Community College’s Overbrook Gallery opens its 2012-13 season with large-scale animal portraits in the exhibit With Apologies to the Future: Drawings by Brett Colley on view Sept. 24 through Nov. 2. This exhibit is tied to ahFest (Muskegon Area Arts and Humanities Festival) and follows the theme of “the future.”
The series of drawings are rendered entirely in acrylic inks on paper. “The animals depicted are struggling to resist the inexorable disappearance of their respective species from the face of the earth,” explains Colley. “Their extinctions are predicated on a wide spectrum of circumstances, but all are anthropogenic in nature. In other words, humankind is responsible. I have rendered these portraits as a means of honoring each subject for its integral role in our bio-diverse ecosystem and contemplating my own complicit role in their struggle and probable demise.”
Brett Colley’s work has been featured in solo and two-person shows at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA, Zeitgeist Gallery in Detroit, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, and the Fine Arts Center in Taos, NM. His prints have been included in group exhibitions throughout the country, recently including Arkansas State University, California State University, Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Minnesota. His work has also been exhibited internationally in group print shows at Molekula Gallery, Rijeka, Croatia; the Print Workshop Gallery, Belfast, Ireland; and Latrobe University, Victoria, Australia.
Colley obtained his MFA degree from the University of Iowa and a BFA degree from Grand Valley State University. Both degrees are in printmaking, with minors in drawing and painting. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Grand Valley State University where he teaches printmaking, drawing, and senior seminar courses.
A free public reception will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 6:00-7:30pm, with a gallery talk by the artist at 6:30pm. Overbrook Gallery hours are 9:00am-4:00pm Monday-Friday with special weekend and evening hours during theater performances of The Adding Machine Oct. 17-21, MCC Wind and Jazz Ensemble Concert Oct. 24, and the College Singers Concert Oct. 28 in the adjacent Overbrook Theater. For more information, contact the MCC Arts & Humanities department at (231) 777-0324.