Alice Hirt Memorial Art Exhibit at Young Harris College

Nasa Nourishment 2 by artist Michael Oliveri.

Young Harris College is pleased to announce the opening of the annual Alice Hirt Memorial Art Exhibit on February 1. The exhibit will feature the art of Michael Oliveri, Chair of Digital Media at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, The University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia. Oliveri will hold an artist's lecture at 7:00 p.m. in the Wilson Lecture Hall of the Goolsby Center. An opening reception will immediately follow the lecture. Admission to the lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.

The Annual Alice Hirt Memorial Art Exhibition was established in 1985 by friends of the late Alice Hirt, co-owner of the Campus Gate gift shop. This year's exhibit takes on a special note because the artwork will be displayed in the Campus Gate, now owned by Young Harris College. Oliveri's exhibition will be available for viewing February 1 through March 2.

A contemporary artist working with unusual mediums, Oliveri constructs pseudo scientific installations that evoke notions of a "mad basement" scientific enquiry. Captured in his Fast Food, Hydrocarbons and Waves in Outer Space exhibition at The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, hydroponic towers grow tomato plants from seeds that have traveled in outer space; neon-green waterfalls and streams cascade under black light; videos show surfers riding an eternal cosmic wave. Through his use of eclectic mediums, Oliveri makes the statement that innovation often occurs not as a result of structured research, but of accidental discoveries.

Oliveri received his BFAin sculpture from San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA in New Genres from the University of California, Los Angeles. Works by Oliveri have been shown throughout the United States at venues including Lump Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina; Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, Florida; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia; Florida State University Museum, Tallahassee, Florida, Plan B, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Brea Municipal Gallery, Brea, California, Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica, California, and Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Reviews of Oliveri's art have been published in Art Issues, Art Papers, and the Los Angeles Times.

For more information about the art department at Young Harris College or the art exhibit featuring Michael Oliveri, please call Dawn Dickins, program director, at (706) 379-5026, or Rusty Wallace, professor of art, at (706) 379- 5144.

Founded in 1886, Young Harris College is a private, core liberal arts college focused on university preparation. Historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church, a primary goal of Young Harris College is to provide a quality education for the whole person: intellectually, socially, culturally, and spiritually. To learn more about Young Harris College, visit us at www.yhc.edu.