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WEST LIBERTY -- West Liberty University's Nutting Gallery's first exhibition of the 2017-18 season opened Wednesday with "Investigations and Interactions" by Tom Estlack.
A professional artist with experience in web development, sculpture, music, animation and other media, genres and technologies, Estlack has taught, done pro-bono work with nonprofits, developed curricula and created solutions for academic use.
A resident of Bethel Park, Pa., he has a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and is married to WLU's associate professor of graphic design Sarah Davis.
"The title of this exhibition -- 'Investigations and Interactions' -- represents two features of my work. I am interested in creating artworks that involve the viewer in varying levels of interaction, participation and psychological immersion; the intent being that hopefully a viewer/participant is led to further levels of investigation or exploration upon interacting with the work."
He continued: "I am interested in provoking the viewer to sometimes break with the social mores associated with the traditional exhibition space to explore the work. In the case of some works in this show, the viewer/participant could blow on sculptures, touch the artwork or hold a cell phone very close to a painting to connect to a web page. Other elements are nearly invisible to the naked eye and are therefore only able to be explored with flash photography, using the flash on the cell phone camera for example.
The exhibition is free and open to the public through Sept. 21. Located in the Fine Arts Building, Nutting Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Weekends and other times are by arrangement only. For information, email rvillamagna@westliberty.edu or call 304-336-8370.