Exhibition of Drawings and Ceramics at Colorado State University Explore the Female Experience

Colorado State University’s Curfman Gallery will host an exhibition featuring abstract pastels, charcoal drawings and ceramics that express the intimate and universal aspects of the feminine Oct. 2-Nov. 2.

Artists Kay Jenkins and Paula Smith combine their work to present "The Spaces Within," an exhibit that explores the emotional tensions of the female experience. Smith will discuss their work at noon Oct. 6, with a reception for both artists from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

The exhibition, lecture and reception are free and open to the public and will be held in Lory Student Center’s Curfman Gallery. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. and Saturday from 1-4 p.m.

"The figurative work of Paula Smith’s sculptures is personal and decidedly feminist," said Jeanne Shoaff, Curfman Gallery coordinator. "Jenkins’ abstract pastels and charcoal drawings, with their curvilinear and sweeping motion, put one in mind of both the greatest reaches of the universe and the deepest yearnings of the soul."

Jenkins was a ceramics and drawing professor at Colorado State from 1994-99 and has exhibited her work in Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina. Jenkins said that, although her drawings are non-objective, "they resonate with organic associations that evoke the tensions of contemporary existence."

Smith said that all her objects in the exhibit refer to a vessel either realistically or symbolically. She is continually fascinated by the concept of "woman as vessel."

Smith is currently an associate professor of ceramics at Gaston College in North Carolina. She has exhibited throughout the American South and Midwest.

For more information contact Shoaff at (970) 491-5838.