Ideation X Gallery
The Ideation X gallery is a partnership between the IDEA Bank and the Department of Art and Design. The gallery space are the external, street facing, outside walls surrounding the Idea Bank in the center of the City of Troy, Alabama. These walls are installed with all-weather vinyl banners that display student and professional artwork. For more information about Ideation X Gallery please contact professor Chris Stagl.
New project unites TROY with photographer Hai Zhang
ORIGINALLY REPORTED BY AMYA MITCHELL - 4/19/2021
IJͼ’s Department of Art and Design will bring rural China to Troy in the new project “From 231 to Yangtze.”
The project, made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, is a collaboration between TROY and New York City-based photographer Hai Zhang.
Zhang was born in Kunming, China, and has spent time travelling to places such as Southeast Alabama, Miami and Washington, D.C. for his work. He has followed the lives of different people along China’s Yangtze River, using his camera to document their culture.
Zhang began documenting the same thing in rural areas of America, including Troy, Alabama.
“What we’re interested in doing is a collaborative project where students are actually looking at his work and then going out and shooting, making comparisons and contrasts of people within our community,” said Edward Noriega, Professor of Art.
The exhibit will show comparisons between rural China and rural Alabama, and the nuances of both cultures.
Zhang will come to the University to conduct a masterclass that will consist of a presentation of his work and field assignments where students can have their photos critiqued.
“At the end of the workshop, we plan on having two shows,” Noriega said. “One [will be] at the International Arts Center inside of the gallery, and it [will] be his work showcased with students’ work.
“There will also be the same kind of exhibit on the outside of the IDEA Bank.”
The project will not only be a way for students to learn more about photography, but to be mentored by someone who finds beauty in every space.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Noriega said. “I think it’s going to be really interesting, and Mr. Zhang has a really great eye.
“He’s pretty well [respected] internationally and so it’s a real treat to be able to have him come down here and to be able to share his vision. He’s very much an artist that likes to bring art to the people as opposed to making people come to a gallery space.”
Zhang will also work with the students to produce a limited-edition photography book that will be handmade and printed, and available for purchase at the University.
The project will take place during the fall semester under a class called Collaborative Studio taught by art professor Greg Skaggs.
Ideation X gallery brings student art to IDEA Bank
ORIGINALLY REPORTED BY AMYA MITCHELL - 5/12/2021
IJͼ’s graphic design students now have their award-winning art displayed
at the IDEA Bank “to bring life and art to Downtown Troy.”
The Ideation X gallery is a partnership between the IDEA Bank and the Department of Art and Design’s DTI Center.
Chris Stagl, an Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Judson Edwards, Dean of the Sorrell College of Business, and Ed Noriega, Director of the Design Center and a Professor of Graphic Design, worked together to create the external gallery around the walls of the IDEA Bank.
The murals were designed in Stagl’s Fall 2020 typography class.
Stagl later met with TROY First Lady Janice Hawkins, who liked the projects the students created.
“She then gave me the thumbs up to move forward with getting them installed on the outside of the IDEA Bank’s walls,” Stagl, the creative director and designer behind the gallery, said.
Stagl worked alongside the students to get the designs created in the proper format
and size to be displayed at the bank.
The murals represent the students’ interpretation of what it means to “inspire creativity, ingenuity and collaboration.”
Stagl “could not be more proud” of the designs that the students created.
“It really shows an expert level of thinking and an extremely creative process when I look at the output,” Stagl said.
Olivia Kattos is a graphic design student at IJͼ whose mural is displayed at the IDEA Bank.
“When I heard the department was printing [the mural project] for an external gallery, I was ecstatic,” Kattos said. “I have never had my work shown on this kind of scale.”
Kattos also won an American Advertising Federation Award (ADDY) for her mural.
Other students whose murals are displayed include Abby Vignuelle, Ashley Jones, Carly Boyd, Collen Layton, Dang Long, Hannah Keiser, Jazmyn Fletcher, Katie Genetti, Kai Xu, Natalie Blocker and Nekel Anthony.
