The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 10/26/06 Section: Arts

Media Credit: Courtesy Dawn Clement's omnious 47-foot panormic drawing Travels with Myra Hudson transports the viewer into the world of the 1952 thriller "Sudden Fear" currently on view at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. [Click to enlarge]

Countless ball point pens, pots of sumi ink, 47 feet of paper and draftsmanship extraordinaire fuse together in former Middlebury artist-in-residence Dawn Clements' Travels with Myra Hudson, the latest manifestation of the Art Now series on display at the Middlebury College Museum of Art (MCMA). Clements' immense work on paper depicts the ominous environment of the 1952 thriller "Sudden Fear." Detailed representations of the scenery of this famed film noir swell across the walls of the Overbrook Gallery, covering it nearly from end to end, floor to ceiling. This solo show, made up of just a single work, is arguably one of the most impressive exhibitions to date for the fledgling Art Now series.

Art Now unlocks studio doors from Brooklyn to Bristol to Berlin to reveal a wide array of provocative contemporary art. Conceived in conjunction with the studio art department and at the encouragement of Professor of Art Jim Butler, the contemporary art series was originally established to provide a direct resource for studio art classes. In addition, the gallery allows all museum-goers to experience a variety of profound glimpses into work driven by our contemporary culture.

"The gallery gives us a great opportunity to show current art, and to connect MCMA and the art we show to the studio art department," said Chief Curator of MCMA Emmie Donadio. "As a college gallery/museum, we are committed to showing art of the present moment. It is stimulating, provocative and occasionally confrontational, but in the interest of showing living works, we feel it is essential that it be shown."

Since the gallery's opening, its walls, floor and ceiling­ - such is the brilliantly schizophrenic nature of contemporary art - have been decked with work by the vanguard likes of hyper-realist Joel Shapiro, video artist Tony Oursler and New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren. Each exhibition explores new mediums, new subjects and new ways of looking at our world. Travels with Myra Hudson adds still another strikingly innovative facet to Art Now's showcase of contemporary art.

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