The Van Every/Smith Galleries of Davidson College (a Knight arts grantee) have a long tradition of collecting and exhibiting some major artists. For more than a decade this reputation has expanded under the leadership of Davidson Galleries Director and Curator Brad Thomas.

The Van Every/Smith Galleries play a fundamental role in the life of Davidson College, providing a challenging forum for the presentation, interpretation and discussion of primarily contemporary artworks in all media for students, the Davidson community and numerous visitors. An ongoing series of exhibitions and lectures by visiting artists and scholars nurture individual thinking, develop visual literacy and inspire a lifelong commitment to the arts.

Through Oct. 26, in honor of the community-wide celebration of Romare Bearden’s 100th birthday, the Van Every/Smith Galleries are sharing the work of emerging mixed-media artist Chris Watts and acclaimed sculptor Kendall Buster, who is the selected artist for Charlotte’s Romare Bearden Park major commission.

This exhibition focuses on Buster’s recent permanent installations of monumental sculpture in public spaces and offers an unusual opportunity to see this artist’s process. The show features numerous site plans, diagrams, working drawings, videos and scale models of completed commissions for Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University and the San Francisco International Airport, among others. Buster’s monumental “White Highrise Vessel,” (2005) was installed in the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center’s atrium, where it will remain throughout the fall semester.

Looking at the images of “White Highrise Vessel,” both with and without viewers, notice how the artist utilizes the scale and lightness of her materials, powder-coated steel frames covered in a white shade cloth. This creates pieces that are both private yet public, open and vast, yet intimate. These works do have a handmade feel and are translucent, yet they can also seem more solid. All of this work reflects Buster’s early studies in science and her fascination with forms in nature.

Buster says the following of her “White Highrise Vessel:” “Any window is a charged site, the place where interior and exterior negotiate. This is true whether one is looking in, looking out, looking up or looking down, whether one is looking or being looked at. The circular opening at the top of the dome is its oculus. It is like an abstracted eye, a divine eye and becomes the source of surveillance. Standing beneath such a window I am at once illuminated by benign light and caught in the act.”

Under the direction of Thomas, the Van Every/Smith Galleries have not only exhibited some incredible contemporary works of art, but it expanded its permanent art collection to more than 3,200 works, which span 500 years of art history and offer many unique learning opportunities.

Looking ahead to January 2012, there will be an exciting and unusual chance to see some of these works in the upcoming “Recent Gifts and Acquisitions” show. This exhibition will include a brand new Magdalena Abakanowicz commission being created specifically for the Davidson College campus, as well as Sean Scully works on paper.

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Van Every/Smith Galleries of Davidson College All events of the Van Every/Smith Galleries are free.   Easy free parking in lot behind the Galleries. Weekdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weekends 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. 315 N. Main St.Davidson, N.C. 28035 (Corner of Griffith and Main Streets) 704-894-2519