The Exhibition Department at Stevenson University is pleased to announce LAPSED Heidi Neff, the 2023 fall exhibition in the newly named School of Design, Arts and Communication (SoDAC) Lobby Gallery.
Lapsed is an exhibition of time-based artworks exploring a cyclical relationship to time and history. Bodies age and institutions collapse in an unending loop. And, life is equally and consistently renewed and rejuvenated.
Lapsed is an adjective meaning “no longer valid: expired” as defined by Oxford Languages. The pieces in this exhibition question the validity and durability of political systems and structures. For example, Crowd Control is a multi-channel video installation questioning the institutions and methods we use as a society to control ourselves; Fire and Ice is a video and installation piece concerning widening polarization and the collapse of the two-party system; Erased is a rotoscoped video expressing dissent against the current majority in the Supreme Court.
Neff values personal engagement over distanced perspectives. The word lapsed also references lapses of reason, time-lapse, time collapsing in on itself, and various kinds of prolapse that may occur with age. All of these definitions play a part in this exhibit.
The animations that will be screened in conjunction with the exhibition include the award-winning short film The Long Goodbye (2021), a personal documentary of Election Day 2020 to Inauguration Day 2021.
The opening reception is Saturday October 7, 2023 from 1:00–4:00pm. At 2:30pm we will be screening several of Ms. Neff’s short films. Throughout the fall semester, Professor Neff will be leading animation workshops with students.
Bio
Heidi Neff (she/her) earned her MFA from University of Iowa and her BFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her background is as a painter leaning towards highly expressionistic narrative, and most of the animations and videos take directly from hand-drawn or painted pieces. Animation was a natural outgrowth of her inclination to explore multiple ideas and stories at the same time. She is largely self-taught as an animator and prefers to do as much of the animation as possible on her iPad.
Heidi Neff is a Professor of Art + Design at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland, where she lives with her husband and collaborator, Paul Chuffo, and their two children, Max and Maya.
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The SoDAC Lobby Gallery is located on Stevenson University’s Owings Mills North campus. The building address is 11100 Ted Herget Way, Owings Mills, MD 21117.
The gallery is open Monday – Thursday from 9:00am to 6:00pm; Friday from 9:00am to 4:30pm; and Saturday from 11:00am to 4:00pm.
