The De Pree Art Center and Gallery at Hope College will feature recent works by four new faculty members through the exhibition “Connecting Flights” from Thursday, Jan. 18, through Thursday, Feb. 22.

There will be an opening reception featuring remarks by the artists on Thursday, Jan. 18, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the gallery.  The public is invited to the reception and exhibition, and admission is free.

The faculty artists with pieces in the exhibition are:  Eric Andre, visiting assistant professor of art; Amy Kim, assistant professor of photography; Amelia Mendelsohn, visiting assistant professor of art; and Elizabeth Rose, visiting assistant professor of art.

The show engages a broad range of media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography. The works cross boundaries and challenge conventions through a journey into contemporary art, showing resilience and passion from multiple perspectives.

Eric Andre is an interdisciplinary artist who investigates immigrants' experiences of displacement, vulnerability and negotiation to challenge sociocultural, sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures. His work combines abstract and perceptual-driven artworks to place the audience in places of accessibility and inaccessibility, constrained by fear and a lack of understanding of the unknown.  His works are intended to inspire viewers to examine their identity and prerogatives and develop a new sense of consciousness and self-awareness within constructed systems and the world around them.

Born in Akumadan, Ashanti Region, Ghana, Andre holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a BFA from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. He became a teaching and research assistant and a principal lab/studio technician in the Ceramics Department at KNUST. He was concurrently an adjunct professor (foundation, 3D design and ceramics) at the University of Arkansas and a curator at Art Ventures Gallery. He also worked as a visiting assistant professor and the head of the 3D studio art area (ceramics and sculpture) at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.

Amy Kim’s artistic process develops from observing surface structures and veneers which have been layered on, built or shellacked — be they image collections of U.S. petroleum production, inquiries into difficult histories through fictive recipe cards or performative gestures. She seeks to fracture these hardened surfaces while not forgetting to add some polish on them.

Kim holds two MFAs (studio art and art administration) from Texas Tech University. She exhibited at the CICA museum in Seoul, Korea, and the Ping-yao Photo Festival in China. As TPS’s National Award winner, her “Wolfcamp Catalogue,” a site survey of the Permian Basin of Texas, the world’s largest oil and gas producer, was exhibited at the 2022 Houston Fotofest Biennale as a solo exhibition. Her chapter “Photographic Arts and Fake News” appeared in “Teaching 鶹Ƶ Fake News” (2021). Her forthcoming artwork and related essay “Taming Taste: The CaribBasin Recipe Cards” is scheduled for publication in the edited volume “Nourish and Resist” by Yale University Press. Prior to Hope, Kim was part of the art faculty at the University of Texas Permian Basin. An American-born Korean, she lived in South Korea, France and Texas before returning to Michigan, her birth state.

Amelia Mendelsohn’s work explores everyday domestic scenes culled from archival family photos. She is concerned with familial conflict existing within mundane domestic scenes, especially when social mores and value systems bury traumatic experiences within the home.

Mendelsohn holds an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Notre Dame and a BA in studio art and art history from Sweet Briar College. Her current practice is grounded in figurative paintings that explore family dynamics and conflict within the home through a feminist understanding of the domestic sphere.

Elizabeth Rose’s practice as an artist begins with the study and research of parallel places and ecosystems.  Referencing her experiences traveling through altitudinal zones to alpine areas, and across latitudinal lines, she creates work which connects geographically disconnected landscapes focusing on their shared ecologies: how each site is connected through climatic shifts, soil qualities, and habitat range. She works with copper, wood and light sensitive materials to create limited edition works on paper, assemblages and installations.

Rose grew up exploring natural areas of the midwestern United States, which helped cultivate her creativity and interests in ecology, biogeography, and the ecological importance of varied landscapes. She received her MFA in printmaking from Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and a BA in fine art with a minor in wilderness studies from the University of Montana. In 2023, Rose was the Goodall Visiting Fellow at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina; a studio resident at Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York; and a resident at the Grand Marais Art Colony, where she was selected as the printmaking residency fellowship winner. Rose is an alumna of the Fulbright Program in Poland (2019–20) where she was awarded a research grant in printmaking.

The De Pree Gallery is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Those without a Hope College ID, which is necessary to gain access through the front door, should call the Department of Art and Art History at 616-395-7500 to gain entry.

To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu.  Updates related to events are posted when available at hope.edu/calendar in the individual listings.

The De Pree Art Center and Gallery is located at 275 Columbia Ave., between 10th and 13th streets