2020 SECAC Artist's Fellowship Exhibition – Adrian Rhodes 

11.30.2020

SECAC, in collaboration with VCUarts and the Anderson (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA) are pleased to present the 2020 SECAC Artist's Fellowship Exhibition, featuring 2019 SECAC Artist's Fellowship recipient Adrian Rhodes.

Consistent with the fully virtual conference, this unique, virtual fellowship exhibition makes it possible for all conference attendees, regardless of their physical location, to experience Rhodes' inspiring work—keeping art central to the experience, as it is to the purpose of SECAC’s annual convening. 

Artist's Statement:

I inhabit a space between site-specific installation and a traditional understanding of individual pieces in a gallery setting. Each piece is a statement within a larger conversation, isolating an aspect of the dialogue, examining it, and placing it within the context of other work in the space. As a medium based in creation of the multiple, print becomes a method for creating structure. This framework, indulging a desire for order, creates space for disruptions. Using prints as modular components allows the work to inherit visual information across pieces. I am interested in how this repetition of imagery and motif reflects recurring thought patterns. 

The virtual exhibition has been a fascinating experience, giving me the chance to think about my work without some of the constraints of a physical space. I was able to suspend and animate movement into portions of the exhibition in new, exciting ways. I explored repetition and layering of pattern elements and played with the scale of various aspects, while at the same time trying to make a space you could believably walk into. I look forward to taking my discoveries into future physical installations. I am deeply grateful to Clayton Harper and Chelsea Brtis for helping me to navigate this new platform, and SECAC for the support of my work through the Artist’s Fellowship and the opportunity to share my work with you all.

About the Artist:

Adrian Rhodes grew up in Hartsville, South Carolina. She attended Winthrop University from 2001-2005, earning a BFA in General Studio with emphasis in Drawing and Painting. While studying at Winthrop she participated in a semester exchange with the South Carelia Polytechnic in Imatra, Finland. After several years as a practicing artist she returned to Winthrop, receiving her MFA in Painting and Printmaking in 2011.

Rhodes is the recipient of the SC Arts Commission 2020 Individual Artist’s Fellowship and the 2019 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship. Her work has been included in highly competitive group exhibitions at well regarded museum and contemporary art institutions. "Drawn: Concept and Craft" at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston Salem featured an installation of her work alongside artists including LeRoy Neiman, Kara Walker, Fab 5 Freddy, Kiki Smith, Sarah Sze and Buckminster Fuller. "Paper Worlds" at the Spartanburg Art Museum exhibited her work with eight other artists who, according to the curatorial statement, "push the boundaries and capabilities of paper.” "Coined in the South" at the Mint Museum Uptown selected 64 works by 45 artists from a submission pool of 2000 entries, and was a survey of groundbreaking contemporary southern art.  

Her work has received numerous accolades including Best of Show/Top Honors at VAE Raleigh’s Contemporary South in 2018, Small Works 2018: A Florence Regional Arts Alliance Juried Show and the Arts Council of York County’s 24th Annual Juried Show in 2013. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions including Coastal Carolina University, Francis Marion University, The University of South Carolina, UNC Charlotte, USC Beaufort, Jones Carter Gallery and TRAX galleries in Lake City, SC,  the Arts Council of York County, and City Art in Columbia SC. She currently teaches printmaking at the University of South Carolina.

View More of Rhode's Work:

https://www.adrianrhodes.com/

https://www.instagram.com/adrian_rhodes/

Download a Standalone Version of the Exhibition for Windows Here:

PERFORMANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTENT INTERACTIONS

General:

To support accessibility, this project uses Unity WebGL to run directly in your desktop browser. For the best possible in-browser experience we recommend Firefox, but it is also compatible with Chrome, Safari and Edge. (It is not, unfortunately, currently iOS or Android compatible.) Depending on your connection, it may take a moment to load. Once it’s open, if you experience anything funky (lagging play, etc.) try closing other open tabs which may be using up the browsers processing power. If you’re still getting less than optimal play, try refreshing the virtual exhibition tab and then closing other applications which may be running on your computer in the background. 

Cursor and Keyboard Commands:

– After launching, LEFT-CLICK inside the viewport to activate navigation.

– Use your CURSOR to control the viewing angle by holding LEFT-CLICK in the viewport and dragging the cursor in the direction you’d like the camera to move (i.e. click and move the cursor left to pan the camera left, etc.)

– Use your ARROW KEYS or WASD to control player movement. Left and right (A and D) will move you sideways without changing the camera angle. 

– When facing an artwork, RIGHT-CLICK to zoom in for a closer view. Right-click again to zoom back out. 

– When prompted, press “E” to open documents and linked files in another browser tab. 

– To end your session simply close the tab. If you are using the standalone application, press "ESCAPE" to enter the pause menu and click "EXIT".

Navigation Description: 

If you’ve ever played ‘first-person’ video games in the past, the navigation should be familiar and fairly intuitive. If you haven’t, just imagine that the camera angle represents your perspective as though you were standing in the gallery. Player movement is controlled through a combination of cursor and keyboard arrow keys, with your cursor controlling the angle of view and arrow keys (or WASD) controlling movement relative to your angle of view: forward, sideways, backward, etc. Hopefully you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly! And you can review the cursor and keyboard commands above for a more detailed description of the navigation. 

As you move through the virtual environment you can activate hyperlinks by moving closely to linked objects, including artworks, within the virtual environment. When you're near a linked object a message will pop up telling you which button to push and what will happen when you do. (i.e. “Press E to open exhibition checklist”.) Pressing the button on your keyboard will open the linked content in a new tab in your browser. To close new content simply close its tab.