“Douglas Degges: Remembering Accardo Tackle,” through November 26

Exhibit: Through Friday, November 26

Virtual Artist Q&A: Thursday, October 21, 4 p.m.

St. Ambrose University's Morrissey Gallery, Galvin Fine Arts Center, 2101 Gaines Street, Davenport IA

In the new Morrissey Gallery showcase at St. Ambrose University, works by a gifted painter and noted arts educator with Connecticut's Mansfield Center will be on display through November 26, with the venue housing rich and colorful artworks in Douglas Degges' latest exhibition Remembering Accardo Tackle.

An assistant professor of art in painting and drawing at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Degges received his MFA from the University of Iowa and a BA in Studio Art from Rhodes College in Memphis, and his work has been exhibited in various group and solo exhibits throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently, Degges' creative pieces have been exhibited at the Side Room Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; the PrattMWP Gallery at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York; the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design; Vanderbilt University and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville; Georgia's Atlanta Contemporary; the Factory in Seattle; the University of Vermont in Burlington; and Galleria Huuto in Helsinki, Finland. Over the years, Degges' work has been supported by several artist residencies including the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Millay Colony.

In his Artist Statement with the University of Connecticut, Degges writes, "At a time when we have immediate access to anything, from sourcing information on the Internet to our ability to capture and store images at a moment’s notice, analogue processes seem well poised for critically engaging newer forms of visual expression. In my own studio practice, I find painting and drawing to be great vehicles for slowing down and reflecting on the speed at which images are produced and consumed.

"Many of my paintings begin as small works on paper, the majority of which are made by sifting through piles of painted paper and found printed and photographic material. The pieces come together through a cut-and-paste collage process and many are later translated onto a painting surface through projection or some other transfer process. In many cases, these larger works aspire to do little more than explore a drawing as a facsimile at a larger scale. The paint sits on the surface of these larger works just like it does in the drawings, with similar opacity and body, and points to the drawing much like a printed photograph points to a digital file or film negative. In other cases, the larger works begin with a thick and textured layer of plaster-like material that is then sealed and painted.

"The painting that happens on top of this highly textured surface rarely and only incidentally acknowledges the surface it sits on. I’m interested in how the imagery, that top layer of paint, has to be grafted onto the surface, as if the surface is designed to reject it. In this way, the painted image, the skin, is actually at odds with the bones of the painting."

A virtual Q&A with the artist will be held at 4 p.m. on October 21, and the Douglas Degges: Remembering Accardo Tackle exhibit will be on display through November 26 in the Morrissey Gallery located in St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center. While the venue's regular hours are Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the public can currently visit the gallery by appointment only. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (563)333-6444 and visiting SAU.edu/morrisey.