SFSC MOFAC Features the Work of Four Daytona State College Art Faculty

AVON PARK, Fla. – Feb. 6, 2019 – The South Florida State College (SFSC) Museum of Florida Art and Culture (MOFAC) features the artwork of four Daytona State College faculty on exhibit in the lower lobby of the Alan Jay Wildstein Center for the Performing Arts on the SFSC Highlands Campus in Avon Park from Wednesday, Feb. 13 – Thursday, March 28. Patrons of the museum may meet the artists during the exhibition’s opening reception on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 1 p.m. in MOFAC. The artists are Trent Berning, Kelly Berning, Stacey Reynolds, and Viktoryia McGrath.

Trent Berning is the assistant chair of the Studio Art Department and associate professor of ceramics at Daytona State College. According to Berning, formal inspiration for his work “is found in juxtapositions that create a heightened visual experience. Some of these elements are ancient perfume bottles with highly ornamented tops that explode from the vessels, which conveys growth, transformation, and reflections of internal strengths. Others compare gritty tactile experience of relics and raw earth to the tension of voids between objects that intrinsically take on humanoid characteristics.”

Kelly Berning is an adjunct instructor of design and sculpture. Berning’s work is based on her experiences as a woman and a mother. “The ceramic figures function as a catalyst for living vicariously through a child’s innocent eyes,” she said. “They are directly influenced by a child’s world and the constant worry a mother feels trying to keep her child safe in our perilous society. Because there has been so much sadness in the world lately, I was compelled to create sculptures that offer comfort, peace, and freedom. In short, this body of work is about love.”

Reynolds is an assistant professor of painting and drawing. Reynolds considers herself a cathartic painter. “I exhibit work that seeks to evoke emotions, questions background, and expresses the journey of one’s self,” she said. “Largely inspired by abstract expressionism, naïve mark making, intuitive gestures, and driven by symbolism, the works are abstract at first glance to the viewer, but have some sense of childhood imagery disguised among the colorful layers.”

McGrath is an assistant professor in the Studio Art Department. The primary subject for her art is daily life. According to McGrath, “My work serves as a metaphor of my journey that speaks from worldly influences and resources. Memory and personal experiences converge and inspire my artistic choices of materials, content, and processes. It encompasses love, humanity, passion, death, loss, grief, birth, growth, joy, and all of the struggles of existence. My work is an illustrated parallel path running alongside the trials and emotions of my daily life journey.”

MOFAC is located in the Wildstein Center at SFSC, 600 W. College Dr., Avon Park. The museum is open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m., or by appointment for group tours. Patrons of the Wildstein Center may visit the museum one hour prior to matinee and evening performances. For more information about MOFAC and its programs or to request a museum tour, contact Megan Stepe, curator, by phone at 863-784-7240, email at stepem@southflorida.edu or visit mofac.org.