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Mark Thomas Gibson (American, b. 1980)No More Q and A, 2020Ink on paper22 x 30 in.Gift of John Andrew MacMahon '95 It is hard for the eyes to focus when looking at Mark Thomas Gibson’s No More Q and A. This cartoon-style drawing features a chaotic tumble of arms and legs that create a blurry, contorted cloud with only the occasional defined line of a reaching hand or a kicking shoe. Intermeshed in the disorienting scene includes objects like falling columns, a broken can of bleach, a jumble of papers, and a strangled American flag in the grip of a...

This week, we got to talk to Dr. Laurian Bowles for our second installment of "Profs Talk Art," the series where Davidson professors talk about works in the collection of Van Every/Smith Galleries through the lens of their discipline. Dr. Bowles is the Chair of the Anthropology department. Her work in Africana Studies and Cultural Anthropology focuses on visual storytelling, women’s activism, and the visual economies of women’s labor in Ghana and the African Diaspora. She talked about the Nigerian-Swedish-American artist, Mikael Owunna, and his photograph titled 4 Queer African Women in the Snow, from Limitless Africans. Watch the video here...

Untitled (From "Still Life") Joyce Tenneson (American, b. 1945) Untitled (From "Still Life"), 1995-2000 Color instant print (Polaroid) 29.875 x 22 in Joyce Tenneson's series "Still Life" is very simple: still life objects, but planted in an ethereal world. The bust of a man, now robed in linen, looks other-worldly, heaven-like. One can't tell how Tenneson got the bust to be captured, as it looks like it is floating, weightless, in space. Tenneson is a photographer who works primarily in polaroid, with this one being giant at 29.875x22 in. The polaroid proves an interesting medium. The exposed corners and exposure...