Two new Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibitions are on display in Slocumb Galleries and will be open to the public through April 11.
“Cater-cousin,” J. Gary Hadad’s photography show, contains 19 large color prints capturing the character of some local Johnson City residents and the worlds they exist in.
Hadad said his show is an “investigation of life in the urban neighborhoods of Northeast Tennessee and examines the tension between ‘old South’ and ‘new South’ economic and social change.”
Allowing the layers of their lives to be revealed to show the humanity the people possess is what Hadad keeps in mind when engaging his subjects, he said.
When photographing, Hadad said he will drive around town and stop where “people look visually interesting with character that would come across.”
The show title, “Cater-cousin,” is defined as an intimate friend or a remote kinsman.
Hadad plans to pursue a master’s in photography and has applied to Yale University, James Madison University and the University of Tennessee.
Sarah Dexter’s painting show, “Spectrum of Character,” uses the human figure to explore light and color, she said.
The 11 large canvases on display are color-study portraits executed overall in a primary color, which lends its name in the title.
“I start with the colors created by artificial light sources such as television screens or light bulbs and then intensify the hues,” Dexter said.
Dexter said she creates a narrative quality to follow the subjects through various times of the day, yet she leaves vagueness so that the viewer may bring their own experiences to the paintings.
Her painting, “Yellow Marcus,” represents her portraiture style. The subject is bathed in a spiritual, yellow light and the shadow areas are in green. The viewer may bring their own ideas regarding the interior thought and nature of the subject to the work.
Slocumb Galleries, located on the first floor of Ball Hall, is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
For more information, call 439-5315 or visit Slocumb Galleries web site at www.slocumb.org.

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