Mobile Bay Magazine

Through his fiber constructions, artist Michael Olszewski strives to visually recreate the essence of feelings and emotions that co-exist between conflicting aspects of consciousness, relationships with others and transitional life crises.

Michael Olszewski received his B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute in Baltimore and his M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He has had solo exhibitions at Gross McCleaf Gallery and Schmidt Dean Gallery in Philadelphia; Dolphin Gallery in Kansas City, Mo., the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Ala., Douglas Dawson in Chicago, Helen Drutt Gallery in New York and Philadelphia, among others. Mr. Olszewski has been a visiting artist at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle, Ireland, Kyung-Won University and Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea, the Polish Consulate in Warsaw, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Virginia Commonwealth University, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and Penland School of Crafts and other venues. He currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Olszewski’s work is included in the permanent collections of:

• Art Institute of Chicago
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
• Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
• Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
• Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
• Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Ireland
• Muskegon Museum of Art
• The Baltimore Museum of Art

Olszewski has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The PEW Charitable Trusts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Polish Ministry of Culture, and The Ballinglen Arts Foundation.

This exhibition is organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.

Inspired by his love of tools and farming equipment, Stephen Althouse became a sculptor of wood, leather, and forged metal, but later transitioned to photography, using the tools and artifacts themselves to create large scale photographs with a unique pictorial dialect. The relics that Althouse chooses remind him of the “paradoxes of our species, and some imply the valor of individuals facing lives of relentless uncertainty.”

Raised on a farm in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Althouse grew up close to farmers and their work with earth and animals. He made Miami, Florida his home base for thirty years where he worked as an artist as well as Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at Barry University, and he regularly taught courses and lectured on his art in France, England, Spain, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. In 2003-2004, Althouse lived in Belgium as an artist-in-residence at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Liège through a Fulbright Research Fellowship and concurrent German grants from Hahnemühle papers and Epson printers. Since leaving academia, he now resides in central Pennsylvania where he is reconnecting with his georgic roots and finding new artistic inspiration from the surrounding Amish community.

Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama

Throughout her career as an artist, Mobile, AL, native Monica Beasley has explored concepts of feminism, femininity, home, marriage, family, race, and Southern culture.

Monica attributes much of her influence to her strong and loving mother and her many cherished aunts—three of the works in this exhibition are titled and dedicated to three of these aunts. She is also influenced by the nkisi of Central Africa, the Hopi Native American tribe, and Haitian spiritual art. Teacher, friend, and well known painter Ed Paschke, as well as artists Ellen Gallagher and Kerry James Marshall have also had tremendous influence on her life and work. In speaking about Paschke’s impact in particular, Monica notes, “He opened my eyes to everything already in the universe. You just have to go look for it, to rethink it, repurpose it, and let it shine in a different way.”

Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama

Jane Cassidy creates site-specific audio-visual installations. By manipulating various technologies such as speakers and projectors, Cassidy fuses light and sound to form meditative environments filled with visual music. At the Mobile Museum of Art, she will exhibit a contemplative installation melding sound and illumination, a fully immersive environment of projected light and music that resonates in the body and mind of the viewer.

An Irish artist currently living and working in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Cassidy trained in music composition and animation. She earned a Masters in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin in 2008 and a Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Art from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana in 2014. Since that time, national and international film festivals, galleries, and museums have featured her work.

Organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama

“Our Beloved Women: Matriarchs of the Poarch Creek” is the third installment of a temporary exhibit at the University of South Alabama Marx Library for the Alabama Bicentennial. The original conception for this exhibit comes from the late, Mr. Robert Thrower. Mr. Thrower was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.  He suggested that the key women of Poarch Creek history should be spotlighted for their commitment to the Poarch Creek Community and their many personal achievements. These women were each heavily involved in the community life, traditions, culture, and politics that helped shaped the Poarch Band of Creek Indians into the thriving, sovereign nation that it is today. The USA Center for Archaeological Studies worked closely the Office of Archives and Records Management of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, as well as the Kerretv Cuko Poarch Band of Creek Indians Museum to obtain information, images, and artifacts for this exhibit. The Beloved Women of the Poarch Band Creek Indians number in the hundreds, and each is valued for their strength of spirit, compassion for others, and loyalty to their people.