Exhibit to commemorate works of three art professors
June 4, 2021
The McDonough Museum of Art will celebrate the work and memory of three YSU art professors in an exhibit titled “In Memoriam” beginning Friday, June 11 and running through Saturday, July 24.
The exhibit will feature works by Al Bright, Jack Carlton, and Michael J. Walusis. Also on display will be the Pittsburgh-based exhibition “Anthropology of Motherhood.”
Bright graduated from YSU in 1964 with a degree in art education and earned his master’s degree in painting from Kent State University in 1965. He then became the first African American full-time faculty member at YSU and was the founding director of the university’s Africana Studies program, which he led from 1970 to 1987. His exhibit of paintings will include a work that was created during one of his most noteworthy painting performances with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, featuring 19-year-old Wynton Marsalis on trumpet.
Carlton spent time living and working in Morocco, Maine, Boston, and New York, eventually settling in Ohio and spending several years sharing his knowledge and artistic abilities with YSU students, where he primarily taught printmaking. Carlton was the curator and coordinator of the Downtown Murals Project: MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS, which featured over 50 murals created on Youngstown buildings using images from local museums designed to both beautify the downtown area and provide a cultural and historical context for the city.
Walusis taught printmaking, drawing, and design at YSU for 40 years, serving as chair of the Department of Art from 1986 to 1991. His work often involved a variety of media, including oil and acrylic paintings, prints, mixed-media, and murals, with his printmaking being featured in McDonough’s exhibit.
The first “Anthropology of Motherhood” exhibit was curated by Fran Flaherty and was featured at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh. The current iteration at the McDonough Museum of Art, just like the first version, features works that engage in the complex visual, material, emotional, corporeal, and lived experiences of motherhood, caregiving, parenting, nurturing, and maternal labor. Works in video, sculpture, painting, and photography are all used to convey the sustaining nature of maternal identities.
The McDonough Museum of Art is open from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday. Admission to the exhibits is free and open to the public.