Exploring SU Visual Arts

It’s that time of year again! The Southern University Department of Visual and Performing Arts hosts Exploring the Mediums Exhibit, which has been showcasing various creations of arts since the early 1990’s. The Visual Arts Gallery is also known for displaying works of art by students, visual arts graduates, community artists, artists from various universities across the country, and Southern University faculty. Recently, there has been two exhibits per spring semester during the months of February and March.
This year, the Visual Arts Gallery will be displaying the mixed media artworks of the artist, Malaika Favorite. Malaika Favorite is a local visual artist and writer from Geismar, Louisiana. Favorite has spent many years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana creating masterpieces.
Currently, she resides in Georgia and divides her time between Geismar and Barbados. She is widely known for her pieces with distinct two-dimensional forms and for managing on multiple surface treatments using oil, acrylic, and watercolor. She also takes canvases, wood, metal and more to create an intricate variety of shapes.
Favorite’s paintings have transpired to emit as much from her history as it does from the vast world. Her collections can be surveyed at museums like the Louisiana State University Print Collection in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Alexandria Museum of Art in Alexandria, Louisiana, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and other locations.
Right now, some of Favorite’s most famous works are being displayed in Hayden Hall’s Gallery where each art piece conveys a specific message. In her painting “Legacy of Earth and Sky,” Nick Muhildi, a mass communication major, suggests that the message is “….anything around you can be to be beautiful as the idea in your mind…it goes to the explanation of what is art.” Another work of art that was popular was the painting “Fats” in which freshman Southern University student, Andrea Nelson, proposes that “…it’s referring the Blues singer, Fats Domino…that she is paying respect to him and his music.” Art is such a fascinating form of media that it can be interpreted as many different things and can be used to state a message that everyone can understand.
The next gallery, coming in March, will feature works from Southern University students. Artworks for this event may include drawings, paintings, original prints, photographs, ceramics, sculptures, mixed media works, installations, designs, and other creative works and are now accepting submissions. Dr. Randell, the gallery’s curator, advises students to “…try selecting works that are original, creative and unique, made with a sense of good design and composition.”
The Exploring the Medium exhibit opened Thursday, January 31 at 6 pm and will remain open until February 28. The gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 10am to 4pm.
For any additional information or questions, students can contact the Visual Arts Curator, Dr. Randell Henry, at 225-771-4109 or email him at [email protected] or [email protected].