News & Events

The latest Perrel Art Gallery exhibit is a partnership between Middle School students and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.

This exhibit features artwork from Rick Nickel, with the theme “finding symbolism and metaphor in everyday objects and natural processes," said gallery curator Betsy DiJulio.  

Middle School students in the Virginia MOCA PAWS for Cause service program chose Nickel's work for its playful quality and appeal to younger students, coupled with its deeper meaning for older students and adults. They designed and installed the artwork and have their own pieces in the gallery.

On a PAWS day January 16, this group plus 10 art students joined Nickel for a talk in the gallery, followed by a squeeze bottle drawing workshop. In the workshop, he challenged and supported students as they created expressive drawings of people, places, and things that give their lives meaning. The drawings became part of the show January 20.

Nickel has been a professor of ceramics at Old Dominion University for more than 20 years. His work is a celebration of everyday things. He finds metaphorical meaning especially in things that spring from the earth. For example, his sculptures of tomato plants are about growth and family. His grandmother was a gardener, and he used to till the soil for her.

Drawing in a sketchbook plays a central role in Nickel’s artistic process. Eventually his drawings morphed into ideas for ceramic sculpture. He doesn’t worry about the quality of the drawings so much; rather, he considers them a form of note-taking.

“For helping shape this experience for all of us, I am grateful to the students who designed and installed like professionals," DiJulio said. “As well as to Blair Weymouth Monaco, faculty director of the PAWS program; Kathleen Locke and Anna Meadows, faculty advisors to the MOCA PAWS group; Jeff Boyd, head of the Middle School; and Katherine Custer, manager of school and educator programs at MOCA."

The exhibit opened January 12 and remains open through February 13. Students and classes are encouraged to visit any time during each school day.