LIVE Painting Round II - Artist Meet & Greet for The Art of Being: Curious and Curiouser Amanda Reilly & Jack Harris
Curated Beth Giacummo
September 20 – November 30, 2021
Virtual Artist Talk on FB Live | November 4 from 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM
Live Painting with Amanda Reilly in Memorial Gallery | November 9 from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
The Farmingdale State College Memorial Gallery is pleased to announce Fall 2021
exhibition The Art of Being: Curious and Curiouser. Featuring the work of two madly
creative artists, both at an important moment of their career, sharing a connection
and bond created right here in our Farmingdale State College community as mentor and
mentee. The exhibition includes a collection of pieces from both artists that give
viewers a deeper look into their artistic journeys as well asrecent works, political
posters, promotional materials, product design, and nostalgic works from their archives.
The exhibition is an exciting moment for the gallery and Visual Communications department,
a unique opportunity to bring together mentor and mentee: Farmingdale State College
full-time Professor Jack Harris and Alumna Amanda Reilly (2013).
Reilly and Harris have recently released bodies of work that coincidentally both delve
into all that means to be human.
Jack Harris curiously treats viewers to digitally painted epochal portraits of well
known and familiar beings overlaid with emotive illustrious gestural lines making
each portrait or surge with the spirit they capture.
Harris’ exquisite collection of iconized portraits are compiled into Harris’ recent
publication, “Being Human”, also on display in the exhibition. The publication was
released during 2020 and is available for purchase through blurb.com.
Viewers will take a trip down the rabbit hole with Amanda Reilly’s collection of uninhibited
illustrations, paintings, and recent animations expressing raw human emotion and the
deepest, darkest unfortunate habits and imperfections that make us more interesting,
beautiful and mad at the same time.
Amanda’s experience at Farmingdale was extremely successful and set her professional
practice in motion. Most are lucky to find one mentor, but Reilly had a few! Reilly’s
signature style was developed while attending the Visual Communications program.
“What is so impressive about Amanda, and has remained true through her academic career
and into her professional practice, is her definitive voice. She developed a personal
visual style and idiom that is, and was, so distinctive. She has consistently and
steadfastly developed her vernacular while building a body of work and a series of
experiences that are the very definition of ‘style’.” - Jack Harris
Reilly worked with two of the department’s most loved professors, Jack Harris and
George Fernandez. When asked to reflect on her experience at Farmingdale State College,
Reilly explained, “Professor Harris’s mentorship, through his extraordinary guidance
he instructed me on how to grow my brand and develop a visual language as both a designer
and illustrator. Professor Harris constantly encouraged me to push my work further
and dig to discover unorthodox solutions to visual creative problems that would allow
my work to stand out. From designing books, creating interactive apps, to glazing
paintings – through his mixed media teaching methods, I’ve learned to embrace both
traditional and digital media which has allowed me to become an interdisciplinary
artist that continues to grow and evolve within the industry today. Through his mentorship
I realized all the incredible ways I can apply my work, teaching me that as artists
we are not just bound to canvases. - Amanda Reilly
“Under Professor Fernandez’s mentorship, through his compassion and dedication he
taught me how to build up self confidence as an artist and take myself more seriously
as a professional. Within his classes embracing traditional media was always emphasized
as well as developing out of the ordinary visual solutions. Every project I worked
on stretched the limits of my comfort zone as a creative. Over time, Professor Fernandez
saw the manifestations of my mad mind doodled throughout my sketchbook pages and decided
to take the time to independently mentor me. Through each and every project, I became
more and more self-critical of my work as well as began to better refine the quality
in which I produced it.” - Amanda Reilly
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
AMANDA REILLY
Amanda Reilly is an interdisciplinary female contemporary fine artist and illustrator
based out of New York. She has an unhealthy obsession with the color red and grew
up absorbed in her doodles and drawings. She graduated from Farmingdale State College
in 2013 with a degree in graphic design from their Visual Communications program.
At FSC she received an outstanding academic excellence honors award by the Visual
Communications department. Before graduating she started professionally showing at
various art galleries within New York. She was awarded a spot in the Society of Illustrators
Student Scholarship Exhibition as well as the Director’s Cut show at The Art League
of Long Island in 2012. She is a self taught painter who is known for her energetic
illustrative style and subjects immersed in chaos. Always an advocate for public arts,
in 2015 she founded Sideshow Sketch Night, whose mission it was to merge the boisterous
and colorful world of the NYC sideshow and cabaret scene with the young growing art
scene of Long Island. With only a small team of two, she held exciting themed costumed
live drawing events throughout Long Island, NY for two years. In 2020, “Human Nature”,
her solo show at Muñeca Arthouse, consisted of 30+ new works and was featured in Hi-Fructose.
She also exhibited and was published in the Society Of Illustrators 62 (2020).
JACK HARRIS
A transplant to New York, Jack is a member of the Society of Illustrators with a BFA
from Virginia Commonwealth University, an MA from Syracuse University, and an MFA
from Hartford Art School. I am often asked if I planned to be a professional student.
The answer is “No”, of course, but I am a student of Design and Illustration as well
as an instructor, writer, graphic designer, and illustrator.
As a faculty member at Farmingdale State College in Visual Communications my interests
lie primarily in graphic design. I have written about Andrew Loomis (Illustration
Magazine, Issue Twenty, www.illustration-magazine.com), Vincent Di Fate (Illustration
Magazine, Issue 67), and co-authored a book with Steven Withrow for Rotovsion: A Master
Class in Vector Illustration.
With a special interest in graphic storytelling such as children’s picture books,
comic books and graphic novels, I have nurtured a healthy inner child who still collects
comic books and isn’t afraid to say so. I hope this child-like joy is apparent in
my work as well.
Memorial Gallery
The Memorial Gallery's mission is to serve as a vital teaching instrument and visual
resource that enriches campus cultural life as well as that of the surrounding community.
This is to be accomplished through the exhibition of imagery related to the communication
arts, which represent a wide range of media, cultures, and time periods.
The Memorial Gallery is located in Hale Hall on the campus of Farmingdale State College
– State University of New York – 2350 Broadhollow Road (Route. 110).
Gallery hours: Monday through Friday from 9:00AM–4:00PM. Admission is free and the
gallery is accessible to persons with mobility impairments. Please call in advance
of your trip.
Due to current conditions, everyone is required to wear face coverings at all times
indoors.
The College reserves the right to modify visitor protocols based on evolving conditions
and may require additional restrictions to visitor access should conditions worsen.
For additional information, please call 934-420-2181
November 17, 2021
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Hale Hall, Memorial Gallery
Thank you to all of our attendees, we look forward to seeing you at future events.