Works in a variety of media and exploring different versions of familiar landscapes are the second exhibition of the 2000-2001 season at the Denison University Art Gallery. The artists portray the landscapes in exaggerated, detailed, or abstracted forms. The exhibit opens Friday (Oct. 27) with a reception for the artists from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Gallery. Open daily from 1 to 4 p.m. (except during Thanksgiving break from Nov. 22 to Nov. 26), the exhibit continues until Dec. 8.

The three artists - David Stichweh of Westerville, Barbara Petter Putnam of Massachusetts, and Karen Snouffer of Gambier ? use widely dissimilar techniques. Two artists use the traditional media of photography and woodcut prints, and one will create an installation using "American utensil junk."

Stichweh's show, "Recent Photography," visually explores familiar features of natural landscapes. An instructor of photography at Otterbein College, Stichweh has exhibited his work throughout the mid-west, and his current works represent an exploration of two types of technical experimentation. The use of a pinhole camera and hand-coated emulsified watercolor paper allow Stichweh to explore and highlight features of texture and light in familiar subjects such as trees, fences and fence posts, and small rivers.

Putnam has exhibited her artwork throughout the country and is concerned with portraying the fragility of the natural environment. Putnam uses woodcuts to create black and white prints for her exhibition, which portray the intertwined nature of the natural environment and remind the viewer of the necessity of mankind's responsibility for its maintenance. In Putnam's mind, the artist can be a political actor and convey "the majesty as well as the need for sensitive stewardship of these complex ecosystems."

Snouffer, an assistant professor of art at Kenyon College, Gambier, has created an installation using and portraying the objects of everyday life, titled "Extraordinary Father, Ordinary Objects." For 21st century visitors to Snouffer's exhibit, these familiar and nostalgic objects form a different sort of landscape. Snouffer's abstraction and exaggeration of objects such as hair-dryer diffusers and rotating clothes racks impress upon the viewer the extent to which these objects have become part of a virtual "material landscape" of a commercial and material culture.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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