Exhibit by Mark Soppeland Opens Oct. 8

"The Shrine to Suspension of Disbelief and Other Visionary Images and Objects by Mark Soppeland" opens Thursday, Oct. 8.

An opening reception is planned for 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 8. The show will be on display through Oct. 31 in the Brooks Gallery of Wallman Hall on the main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College.

"To enter the world of Mark Soppeland's art is to enter a transportive world of wit, commentary, color and exquisite craftsmanship. No viewer will be left without an opinion, visceral or intellectual response to the pieces," writes Curator Marian Hollinger in her exhibition catalogue.

"Soppeland's work is no 'easy read,' for the artist uses a multitude of large and small objects to fashion his guardians. Sports trophies, samovars, tea kettles, standard lamps and a host of other objects, entirely too numerous to mention, form the literal foundation of his work. Tiny, beaded necklaces, plastic toys, hand-blown glass-nothing is beyond Soppeland's note as a potential part of a new piece. To tour his basement workshop is to wish to remain for weeks, simply looking carefully at each collected item. There is an intricacy to the artist's work that suggests he has discovered how to go back in time, to a more leisurely period when artists would work at length to create elaborate, beautifully-crafted pieces."

Stepping into a darkened gallery filled with Mark Soppeland's sculptures is unnerving. Each sculpture is more living presence than material object, casting off tremulous auras, glowing from within - each staring off inscrutably into space or fixing its gaze upon you.

The artist's work raises a plethora of questions about the function of chaos and chance in artistic creation, the active or passive role of the viewer, the possibility of primal forces embodied in "rogue" technology, the ontology of the "finished" art object and the very nature of post-modernism itself - just to name a few.

Soppeland has been an active artist since the late 1960s and is currently Distinguished Professor at the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron where he has taught for over 30 years. He has appeared in over 350 exhibitions on four continents and has completed over 45 public art projects.

The Brooks Gallery in Wallman Hall is open Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call Curator Marian Hollinger at (304) 367-4300.