Perception, Perspective & Power
May 3–19, 24–26, 2019
Opening Reception | Sunday, May 5, 12–2 p.m.
This is the fifth annual Lasting Legacy exhibition, an ongoing series that puts St. Olaf art history majors in contact with objects from Flaten Art Museum’s collection. As students select and interpret a work of art, they offer fresh perspectives on objects from disparate cultures, eras, and media.
Perception, Perspective & Power investigates the relationships among artist, viewer, subject, and medium. Diving into questions of identity, power differences, and positionality, we can see how visual culture is shaped as well as how it shapes us. This exhibition examines how the gaze affects works of art, uncovers relationships between the artist and subject, and what those relationships reveal about society. These works from the Flaten Art Museum collection were chosen for their treatment of the subject in their adherence, subversion, and rejection of typical representations of power differences within society, exposing such dynamics through the works individually as well as in juxtaposition with one another.
Special thanks to faculty mentor Christopher Tradowsky, Assistant Professor of Art History, and the class of 2019 co-curators, including:
LaMar Gayles Jr.
Grace Jackson
Margaret Lindahl
Grace Marusek
Gunnar Olseth
Abigail Schilling
Marie Wolf