Michigan College to Host Human Figure Art Exhibition Combining Paint and Sculpture

Texas artists and husband/wife duo, Dana Younger and Felice House, announced today the opening of art exhibition SUM YOU SOME ME on January 17th in partnership with Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The duo was initially suggested to the Aquinas faculty and gallery director, Dana Freeman, for review by 2010 ArtPrize winner and Aquinas faculty member, Chris LaPorte. The exhibit highlights two different mediums - figurative painting and sculpture - provoking viewers to project and reflect on his or her own senses of self, nature and wholeness within the human figure. The artists have exhibited across the nation, as well as in Canada.

The exhibition titled SUM YOU SOME ME features pieces brought together by a shared subject matter, but contrast in the way they interpret and represent the human body. SUM YOU SOME ME features nine large-scale portraits of women accompanied by monumental scale wood-sculpted male body fragments.

"For this exhibition, I wanted to focus my work on the head and shoulders of the woman," said Felice House, contributing artist. "I wanted to put the woman's power center in the portrait rather than using the art to portray her sexuality."

SUM YOU SOME ME will be open January 17th through February 21st at the Aquinas College Art & Music Center Gallery at 1607 Robinson Road, SE. An opening reception will be held Sunday, January 17th from 2-4pm.

House and Younger produce images and objects that address some of society's most fundamental binaries: the masculine versus the feminine, the natural versus the cultural and the part versus the whole. Presented larger than life, the faces and limbs operate within a realm of contrast while appearing more striking in proximity to the other than in their absence.

Though the exhibition will bring the duo to Grand Rapids for the first time, Younger and House are familiar with the city's art scene. House has exhibited work a group show alongside, 2010 art prize winner and Aquinas professor Chris LaPorte and Younger is acquainted with Grand Rapids Art Museum director, Dana Friis-Hansen from his time as the director of the Austin Museum of Art.

"We've heard so much about Grand Rapids and its exciting art scene," said Dana Younger, artist. "We're thrilled to premier our exhibit in a community that thrives with the arts."

For more information, please visit: https://www.aquinas.edu/art/gallery.

About Felice House:
Felice House is a figurative painter who strives, through her portrayals of women, to provide a counterpoint to the passive female representations found in art historical tradition. She has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA in painting from the University of Texas. In between her other schooling, House spent time studying classical painting and portraiture at the Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore, MD. House is an Assistant Professor in the Visualization Department at Texas A&M University.

About Dana Younger:
Dana Younger earned a BA in Theater from the University of Texas at Austin. His experiences in the theater, including acting, directing and prop making, all culminated in an interest in art fabrication and business. With more than 25 years in sculpture fabrication, He has handled a vast array of materials used in fabrication. This experience, along with his love of theatricality, comes to play in his work. Currently, Younger is a partner producing an annual holiday art show and a manger of artists, designers and fabricators for Texas Parks and Wildlife.