'#RealNews' Exhibition of Work by Artist Michael Scoggins on View at MCCC Gallery

"#RealNews," works by Michael Scoggins, will be featured at The Gallery at Mercer County Community College (MCCC). This solo exhibition opens Monday, Oct. 16 and runs through Thursday, Nov. 30.

The community is invited to an artist talk on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at noon, in the Communications Building, Room 109, followed by an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Gallery, located on the second floor of the Communications Building on the college's West Windsor Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road. Gallery hours for this show are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The exhibit features approximately 12 large-scale works by Scoggins, in which he lampoons American and art world politics and provincialism in disarming schoolboy-style doodles and writings. In his artist's statement, he says, "A page out of a notebook, with its blue lines and spiral bound edges, is a familiar image. This is my primary vehicle in utilizing a connection with the viewer. The paper is enlarged to give this common object a sense of importance and to create a new perspective. The text and images placed upon the large page deal with the influences of American culture and how it has shaped my life."

Scoggins earned his MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006 and has attended various prestigious residencies including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the MacDowell Colony, and Fountainhead. He has gained international recognition and gallery representation in Atlanta, Miami, New York, Detroit, San Francisco and Vienna. His works have been added to collections including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has had more than 20 solo exhibits and been featured in multiple curated group exhibitions.

Gallery Director Lucas Kelly, MCCC Professor of Fine Arts, says, "We are excited to host Michael Scoggins, who has exhibited all over the world. #RealNews is a specific selection of his work that focuses on overtly political themes. I know the work will generate challenging dialogue about his conceptual and formal decision making with students in a variety of disciplines."