By Julie Cline

"Volume," drawings and sculpture by Virginia artist Craig Pleasants, will open at Washington and Lee's Staniar Gallery on April 23 and will remain on view through May 25. Pleasants will present an artist's talk at the exhibition opening event on Tuesday, April 24. The lecture begins at 5:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall's Concert Hall and will be followed by a catered reception.

The exhibit and the lecture event are both free and open to the public.

Craig Pleasants creates sculptural structures that blur the line between form and function, architecture and art. Based on what he calls an "aesthetics of necessity," Pleasants uses alternative materials to expand the definition of shelter, housing and home.

The artist has exhibited widely for over 30 years and has been recognized with numerous grants and fellowships from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the South Carolina Arts Commission, among others. He is currently the program director for the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, an international working retreat for artists, writers and composers located in Amherst, Va.

Staniar Gallery is located on the second floor of Wilson Hall, in Washington and Lee University's Lenfest Center for the Arts. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.


Source: Washington and Lee University