Forty years is a long time, time that Dan Gunderson, professor of art, has dedicated to sharing his wealth of knowledge to students and faculty at Stetson University. In celebration of his dedication to Stetson and his accomplishments as an artist, Gunderson will give a gallery talk in Sampson Hall at 6 p.m., on Friday, Feb. 26, the last day of his exhibit. There will be a closing reception immediately following, and light refreshments will be served to all guests in the Hand Art Center until 8 p.m., that evening. The Hand Art Center is located at 139 E. Michigan Ave. on Stetson’s DeLand campus. Everyone is invited.

The exhibition in the Hand Art Center gallery features Gunderson’s current professional work, exploring the playfulness of toys using color theory, symmetry and design in sculpture as well as photography. Alongside this main exhibit, a retrospective of his ceramic work over the years is showcased in Sampson Hall. “This exhibition definitely is a springboard for me,” the artist said. “I’ve always been into repetition, using popular images to assemble radio symmetrical designs. My work always had basic shapes, building familiar subjects out of abstract forms. Rather than abstracting recognizable forms, I did the reverse.”

Throughout his years of teaching, Gunderson has always made it clear that gathering and sharing knowledge is paramount in making important decisions, no matter how old you are. His exhibition at the Hand Art Center takes an experimental form of sculpture, utilizing iconic characters from modern entertainment as the building blocks for his pieces. It capitalizes on the shapes and colors of classic icons we know and love (Spongebob, Pikachu, Marvel and DC superheroes, and many more), organizing them in splendid radial symmetry, thus evoking the nostalgia of childhood and fascination. “It’s exciting to learn new processes and I hope that I set a good example for students about learning something new, even at my age,” he said.

For more information about his work, visit Gunderson’s website at http://dangundersonart.com/

For more information about the exhibit, contact Tonya Curran, director of Stetson University’s Hand Art Center, at [email protected] or call (386) 822-7271.

By Anna Chun