New Art Gallery Explores Pop Art

The following press release was issued by Anne Arundel Community College regarding a new art gallery that launched Monday.

The Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery at Anne Arundel Community College invites you to view “Pop Effects,” on display from Jan. 28 through Feb. 21 on the Arnold campus.

Juror Jed Dodds, artistic director of the Studios of Key West, selected artwork blasted through the chutes of consumer culture in high and low definition, from 10 artists from around the country. There is a vast array of modern as well as former and sometimes “abandoned” forms of technology at the disposal of creative types. The work in this show takes these tools and filters pop culture into a beautiful and decadent spectacle of consumption.

“Ganesh Lagerfeld” by Joseph Faura of Baltimore takes images from the realm of haute couture and the Hindu pantheon and re-presents them in the form of giant advertising-style light boxes.  “Cans,” by Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky of San Francisco, builds on Andy Warhol’s ’60s can series with a twist. The artistic duo painstakingly hand-make the mass-produced cans and then trash their work, with each can used as a receptacle for fake cigarette butts. The large scale digital print on canvas epic by Vin Grabill of Ellicott City invests a traffic-clogged highway with a sleek buff sheen. “Up, Up and Ai Wei!!” by Toym Imao of Baltimore is a sculptural assemblage portrait of the current art star Wei decked out with a squadron of Chinese fortune cats perched on his head.

A discussion of the show will be at noon Feb. 6 in the gallery. A reception in honor of the artists will be from 6 to 8 that evening. Both events are free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, with extended hours from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays. For more information, visit www.aacc.edu/cadegallery or contact Chris Mona, AACC professor of visual arts, at cpmona@aacc.edu or 410-777-7028.