News - Lakeland College, Sheboygan WI

Biennial Lakeland College Art Faculty Exhibition begins Oct. 26

General - posted on 10/26/2012

Members of Lakeland College's art department faculty are sharing the spotlight as part of the Biennial Lakeland College Art Faculty Exhibition, which is currently on display.

The exhibit, which runs through December 3, showcases the work of Denise Presnell-Weidner, William Weidner and Dionne Landgraf.

Admittance to the Bradley Gallery is free and open to the public. The Gallery is open from 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, when the college is in session.

The husband-wife duo of William Weidner and Denise Presnell-Weidner have members of Lakeland's faculty and co-directors of the Bradley Gallery since 1989. Both are associate professors of art and are accomplished professional artists in addition to their responsibilities at the college.

Presnell-Weidner had a very tough past year, and her experience with her struggles and her triumphs can be seen in her art work.

"The work that I am including in this exhibit shows the range of changes I have gone through over the past couple of years," she said. "There have been many life and career events have affected the work you see before you. An artist's work is very personal — so personal events have an impact on that work."

Bill Weidner will present some new work he has done within the past two years and something new for his audience. His idea for the new pieces is to open viewers' minds in attempt to create another perspective on life, and a new way to understand our surroundings.

"I am attempting to give my audience, however small, something they do not already have," he said. "I am attempting to suggest how things could be different and perhaps even better, if only as the human race we were willing to break with some of our long-held traditions and beliefs and consider new ways to look at the relationship of all that which is about us."

Landgraf specializes in drawing and painting and her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and galleries dating back to 1977. She holds degrees from Rutgers University, the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Northern Illinois University and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a 1973 Sheboygan North High School graduate.

This show will display Landgraf's work with oil paintings, graphite and silverpoint drawings, prints and plaster casts.

"The Flood, The Offering and the Promise are themes I am exploring in current work," Landgraf said. "The works have meaning or significance on multiple levels. In addition to the visual exploration of line, color, composition and surface, the works speak to such themes as loss, hope and social justice. The engulfing waves of the sea suggest moments of turbulence and desperation. The prism of color suggests the hope of the promise."

She currently teaches art courses at Silver Lake College, recently taught at Lakeland College and UW-Green Bay and has taught a variety of courses at college and camps since the mid-1970s.

Share This Story