Murray State University Galleries to host exhibit by Raluca Iancu

Artist explores disaster, memory and vulnerability in work

 

MURRAY, Ky. — The Murray State University Galleries and the Department of Art & Design are pleased to present Roadside Attractions, the work of artist Raluca Iancu, on exhibition from now through Feb. 26 in the Clara M. Eagle Upper Gallery located inside the Price Doyle Fine Arts Building on Murray State’s campus. 

Iancu’s work explores disaster, memory and vulnerability through different mediums, ranging from printmaking to performance, to edible art and printed objects. In her work, she questions the way we look at tragedy as well as the way we deal with its aftermath. 

“We depend on our technology (planes, trains, automobiles) and easily forget that it is just as fallible as our bodies. At the end of the day, all physical contact is a collision with permanent repercussions, whether visible or not. Most interactions we have with other people are just like these collisions; we are selfishly oblivious to our impact on others,” said Iancu.

Iancu is an assistant professor in art, visual culture and printmaking at Iowa State University (ISU). Iancu earned her Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art, Printmaking, from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada. 

Iancu has exhibited internationally at venues including the Domek Miedziorytnika Gallery & Museum in Poland, the National Museum Robevci in Macedonia, the Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca in Romania, and the CICA Museum in Korea; as well as nationally at the International Print Center of New York, New York, the Bradbury Art Museum in Arkansas and the Art Institute of Boston, Massachusetts. She has been an artist in residence in the United States at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences in Georgia and the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont,  as well as internationally at Art Print Residence in Spain, the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Poland and St. Michael’s Printshop in Canada. 

Iancu also shares her creative scholarship and pedagogical research regularly at conferences such as Foundations in Art: Theory and Education, Mid America Print Council, Southern Graphics Council International and the Southeastern College Art Conference. In Spring 2021 she became a Miller Faculty Fellow at ISU as the principal investigator of a grant titled “Pressing Letters: Integrating Printmaking into Graphic Design and Creative Writing.”

For more information about Iancu and her work, please visit ralu.ca.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with extended hours on Tuesdays until 8 p.m. and Thursdays until 6 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. 

Murray State continues to adhere to state, federal and CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines for the health and safety of its campus and broader community. These include following the Racer Safe and Healthy Guidelines, including social distancing and the required use of face masks/coverings while indoors. The Racer Safe and Healthy Guidelines, along with additional information, is available online at murraystate.edu/racerrestart.