Adaptations by MBU Faculty Member Martha Saunders On View at Hunt Gallery

From November 8 through December 3, the exhibition Adaptations by Assistant Professor of Art Martha Saunders will be on view at Mary Baldwin’s Hunt Gallery.

For over 30 years, Saunders has been exhibiting her work throughout the East Coast, including solo shows at the University of South Carolina and Hood College of Maryland. Her work has been featured in key group exhibitions, juried by such prominent art individuals as Faith Ringgold, Donald Kuspit, and Dore Ashton.

In 2000 she was awarded a grant from the Southeastern College Art Conference, and her art is held in a corporate collections, such as those of the Capital One Corporation, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center, Emily Couric Cancer Center at the University of Virginia, and Rockingham Memorial Hospital. In 2011 Saunders’ work was featured in two publications, the spring edition of Art Studio and the summer edition of The Piedmont Virginian.

An active arts educator for over 37 years, Saunders holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and a BFA from VCU. She is represented by Les Yeux du Monde and is based in Charlottesville.

Saunders writes the following about her work:

Paintings can be an experience, a type of portal into both the familiar and the unknown.  These paintings begin with two I Ching figures which represent the concepts of joy and gentleness.   These and all other states of being described in the I Ching/Book of Change are imagined to be composed of contradicting forces in permanent flux. Using a stable composition based on the six open and closed lines from the so-called hexagrams of the I Ching – and pairing these with various destabilizing visual elements – these paintings seek to evoke an experience of change and complexity. This is realized through the combination of abstract forms and observed elements, with the intent of achieving something not yet seen or imagined.

A reception will be held for the artist from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on November 8 in Hunt Gallery.  The public is invited to attend.

Hunt Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary work in all media by regionally and nationally recognized artists.  The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday during the academic year. Hunt Gallery’s schedule for the 2021–22 academic year can be found online at www.marybaldwin.edu/arts/huntgallery.