Currently, at the L-Wing Art Gallery on the Galloway Campus, two exhibitions are on display until mid-November. On the lower level, you can visit the sculptural works of Taylor Baldwin and Lewis Colburn’s collection titled “A World Lit Only By Fire.” The second floor displays an exhibit titled “A Pinelands Portrait: Art of the Pine Barrens,” a collection of multiple forms of media from a talented group of artists, all coming together to pay homage to the region’s Pine Barrens. We visited the exhibits with sophomore visual arts major, Brenda Palencia, to get a look into what this exhibition means to them as someone looking to go into this field after college. 

Professor Jed Morfit curated the exhibition featuring Baldwin and Colburn’s sculptures. He described the collection as, “[combining] outstanding craftsmanship with extraordinary sensitivity to material which creates work that unsettles expectations of value and meaning…both artists employ a complex and layered array of techniques to integrate found objects and new forms into compositions that challenge us to ‘find value in the least of what we had, of what we had taken for granted.'”

“I really liked Colburn’s piece, ‘Dumb Heroic Gestures,'” said Palencia. “For no particular reason. Sculptural art isn’t really my thing, I mostly illustrate, but you can tell there was a lot of heart and thought put into every part of that sculpture. Everything belonged in place, working together to lift a brick, but for what? Who gets anything out of that?”

We then headed upstairs to take a look at the “A Pinelands Portrait” collection featuring a plethora of media and subjects all connecting back to our own backyard, the Pine Barrens. Ann-Marie Woods’ collection of moths caught their attention. ‘From Sallows on Huckleberry’, 2023, is a portrait of two moths; the first of the season. “I do a lot of work illustrating moths actually, so it’s really a treat to see them here. I like how they mirror one another in this specific picture. I love the detail. You can tell there was a lot of effort put into capturing this specific moment in time,” said Palencia.

We then toured the rest of the exhibitions; media ranged from portraits and documentary-style videos to paintings. “I urge you to come visit, no matter what I say it will never truly encompass what is here. Everyone will get something different out of it. Especially when you look up close you can see the artistry and the care; these are some of my favorite shows we’ve had here to date.”

For a full list of artists, and more information on when you can see these exhibits for yourself, visit: https://stockton.edu/art-gallery/