By Kaitlyn Leckie
Circulation Manager

KU art professor Dan Talley will debut his art exhibit Retrospective at Albright College’s Freedman Gallery Jan 28, 2020.

Talley has always enjoyed the Freedman Gallery and said he was “delighted to be invited to do a show there.”

There will be some photos, drawings and installation pieces that involve sound and a few videos, as well. According to Talley, the photo subject matter is all over the place.

There is a selection of black and white photographs with text next to them called “See through Psychics.” Talley invited a couple psychics to meet him at a warehouse of architectural salvage and asked them to go to any object that spoke to them. Each photo has a text next to it explaining what the psychics got from the object and why it spoke to them.

Talley also speaks of having a piece dedicated to his father who was color blind. There is a large photo of him dressed as a cowboy for the main focus of the piece. His father was always a huge fan of old, black and white Western movies. There is a selection of smaller photos of old Western movie stars from the 50s-80s. He distorted all the photos in Photoshop to match the Shinobu Ishihara color blind test.

His exhibit is a Retrospective that dates back to the 70s, capturing different parts of his life and art career. Talley said, “I’ve always been interested in this particular branch of visual art that became popular when [he] was still a student. Conceptual art that is based on a certain idea…the pieces are more driven by that idea than the look of the piece.” This has been central to him for many years. The look of the piece is secondary to the idea behind the piece.

Talley hopes people will enjoy the show. He said this exhibit has already allowed him to look back on 40+ years of art and even organize his life more.

Talley has not only been an artist through the years, but he has also been an arts writer for a weekly newspaper he started that has been running for more than 40 years, in addition to opening an art performance place that has also been running for that amount of time.

This exhibit and his organizations have caused him to reflect on what he has done and where he is going.

Talley hopes for those who read this to get out and see art more. There are many students who haven’t seen the galleries here at KU, and he hopes people become more open to checking out what is going on in Sharadin. He also hopes for readers to see how much art reflects culture. If they are feeling adventurous, students should take a trip to the Freedman Gallery at Albright and check out the show.

Talley’s Retrospective will run until April 9, 2020. There is a reception for the show Feb. 6 from 4-6 p.m.