New UNF Gallery exhibit features 70s art in celebrating of UNF’s 50th anniversary
Jordy/n (Jordy) Bowen, a University of North Florida senior majoring in fine arts, has curated a new exhibit of 1970s art from the UNF Carpenter Library’s Permanent Collection to celebrate UNF’s 50th anniversary. The opening reception takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, at the UNF Gallery of Art in Founders Hall, Building 2, Room 1001, and the collection will be on display through the closing reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8.
Bowen approaches the upcoming exhibition of curated art and video as a research-based project, bridging together academia and art by utilizing the rich history of the seventies to contextualize the selected works and build in significant cultural moments that dominate the era but are often overlooked, such as the influence of Queer history within the decade.
Bowen is a multimedia, interdisciplinary artist who specializes in queer art and Afrofuturism. She channels Afrofuturism as a means of social critique and exploration of identity as a queer Black femme in the south. Bowen constructs their own world from music, footage and personal experience while translating these emotions and ideas primarily through printmaking, painting and digital media.
Bowen operates within the intersection of art and activism, with community work as a major pillar of their ethos— most presently through an ongoing fellowship with artist/activist-run-space Yellow House Art Gallery in Jacksonville. She has also worked as an ambassador at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville and participated in the successful DIY group show pop-up XYGOAT.
The exhibit project is part of the UNF Galleries Summer Internship transformational learning experience that annually presents a talented student with the opportunity for advanced curatorial and research opportunities not commonly available in undergraduate work.
Learn more at www.unf.edu/gallery.