Ericka Basile, a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and English, will hold her senior exhibition of paintings and works on paper at East Tennessee State University’s Slocumb Galleries from March 20-24. A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, March 24 from 5-7 p.m.
Basile’s exhibition will be titled “The Eternal Masquerade,” a title that was taken from a book written by Dennis H. Bradley.
Bradley says that clothes should be the beautiful mask.
“My paintings are a glorification of the masking effects of clothing and ornament,” said Basile after explaining that the exhibition was inspired in part by Bradley’s book and by a collection of fancy underpants that the artist owns but cannot bring herself to wear.
“The Eternal Masquerade” includes a collection of oil paintings on printed cotton, canvas and gauze as well as several oil and graphite drawings on wax covered vellum.
Basile describes her work as an exploration into the human fascination with ornament.
She is fascinated by the psychology of costume and the apparent absurdity of many of the things we use to clothe ourselves.
Ruffles, printed patterns and sequins; they are all made to distract, said Basile. Of course sequins aren’t real jewels. They are made to look like such.
Basile has most recently been featured in exhibitions such as 4×4 Miniature Masterpieces at the Johnson City Arts Council, Fermata at Nelson Fine Art in Johnson City and the Halpert Biennial at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, N.C.
Her work has been reviewed in the Johnson City Press and has been published in the Mockingbird literary magazine, the East Tennessean and on the cover of the Biomedical Communications Calendar for the Quillen College of Medicine.
She has served as president of the Student Painting and Drawing Association at ETSU for three years and was recently named Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities.
Slocumb Galleries is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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