ASHLAND – The Coburn Art Gallery at Ashland University will present “Open Tactics: Vulnerability as Survival,” a group military-themed exhibition curated by Daniel J. King, from Monday, Aug. 24, through Sunday, Sept. 27.
A reception, free and open to the public, with the artists and curator will take place on Thursday, Sept. 3, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The gallery is located at 331 College Ave., Ashland.
“Open Tactics” brings together seven artists connected through U.S. military service experiences and long-term artistic practices,” King said. “Through photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and mixed media, it explores their responses to the complexities of the human experience as the works reflect personal histories and engage in expressions of identity, resilience, memory, trauma and vulnerability.
“This exhibition isn’t about defining artists by their military backgrounds. Instead, it highlights how creative practice becomes a process of making and remaking ourselves and our world. These artists bring unique perspectives shaped by lived experience, but their work also reaches beyond the personal story to explore what it means to be human in an uncertain world.”
Artists featured in the exhibition include Leni D. Anderson, Michael Bush, Stephen Canneto, Dan Gerdeman, Matthew Harmon, Jonathan Johnson and Mary Skrenta. Together, their work offers visitors an opportunity to consider vulnerability not as weakness, but as an essential strategy for strategy for survival, adaptation and connection.
For Coburn Gallery hours and more information, visit ashland.edu/coburn-gallery or contact Cynthia Petry at cpetry@ashland.edu or 419-289-5652.