Article by Emma Grosskopf<\/p>\n
On Friday, Sept. 8 at 6 p.m., the Olin Gallery was bustling with over 200 people who were there to admire the work of artists Steve Keene and Steve West in the gallery\u2019s first big opening of the fall semester. Keene, originally from Virginia but currently residing in Brooklyn, was a featured artist at RC ten years ago, and this was the \u201cTen Years After!\u201d showcase.<\/p>\n
Called the \u201cAssembly-Line Picasso\u201d by Times magazine, Keene focuses on a simple yet colorful approach to his art, which currently covers almost every inch of the Olin Gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve Keene succeeded in turning the entire gallery into his work of art,\u201d said Talia Logan, Olin Gallery director.<\/p>\n
When over 200 people attend an opening, there\u00a0are going to be over 200 reactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore a show starts, I\u2019m always panicked and thinking that I\u2019m stupid and that people see through my game, but then when I\u2019m here, people are happy to be a part of the situation,\u201d Keene said.<\/p>\n
Keene\u2019s artistic process involves replicating his painted images, most of which were painted on plywood panels. Keene called his work \u201cindoor graffiti\u201d, and his works are selling for $5 to $10 depending on the piece.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to this opening specifically because it\u2019s a little different. You can actually buy these pieces. Olin doesn\u2019t usually do stuff like that, so that is pretty cool,\u201d said senior Renee Spaar, who is an art and art history double major.<\/p>\n
The artist featured alongside Keene was Steve West, former \u201890s indie-rock drummer from the band Pavement. His exhibition, Chickpea Power, was showcased in the Smoyer Gallery. West lives in Lexington currently, and this was his first time being featured at RC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to paint or make music about things that are around you in your life, whether it be the outdoors, the topography of the land, or what you\u2019re hearing, or what you\u2019re listening to, all of your influences,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n
Logan said that her goal for this year is to spread awareness of all of the events that are going to be happening at Olin in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like people don\u2019t really know we exist,\u201d Logan said.<\/p>\n
Spaar also believes that Olin is underappreciated on the RC campus. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t pay much attention to the art program here because it\u2019s all in one spot. There aren\u2019t really any\u00a0pieces of art in any other areas of campus,\u201d Spaar said.<\/p>\n
Logan is attempting to get the whole community engaged, and one of the ways in which she is doing this is through the Paper Blooms Project, a collaborative effort that showcases hand-made paper flowers by hundreds of volunteers from the Roanoke-Salem area.<\/p>\n
Keene and West\u2019s art will be in Olin until Oct. 8, and the gallery is open from 1-4 during the week if students still would like to view and\/or purchase the art.<\/p>\n
The next event in Olin is Legacy: Highlights from the Roanoke College Permanent Collection. This exhibition, which runs from Oct. 27 until Dec. 3, will showcase artists such as Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Andrew Zuckerman, while Willie Baronet\u2019s exhibit We Are All Homeless will be featured in the Smoyer Gallery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Article by Emma Grosskopf On Friday, Sept. 8 at 6 p.m., the Olin Gallery was bustling with over 200 people who were there to admire the work of artists Steve Keene and Steve West in the gallery\u2019s first big opening of the fall semester. Keene, originally from Virginia but currently residing in Brooklyn, was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}