Four voices, one gallery: Lycoming College announces Faculty Art Show

Lycoming College will launch its Faculty Art Show on Dec. 4, with an opening reception at 5 p.m. The show will run through Jan. 30 and is free and open to the public. This year's exhibit brings together four faculty artists, each pulling from a distinct well of experience, history, and craft.

Seth Goodman

Seth Goodman, associate professor of art, will show works that examine the social and political dysfunction of our times. Celebrity and class worship, the culture wars, and the politics of disinformation become a conceptual focus as his paintings poetically unearth truths that lie just beyond the topical twists and turns of the day. 

Manuel Moreno-Lee

In this exhibition, Manuel Moreno-Lee, assistant professor of art, explores the creative possibilities of concept development and character design, using visual storytelling as a means of exploring ideas and imagined worlds. Through a process of research, experimentation, and visual exploration, his work examines how character, form, and narrative intersect to communicate ideas and evoke emotion. Each design serves as an exploration of identity, imagination, and the visual language of storytelling.

Andreas Rentsch

During his 2024 sabbatical, Andreas Rentsch, associate professor of photography, cleaned up his studio and discovered several boxes of discarded 4 × 5-inch Polaroid Type 55 prints from his “Entangled with Justice” series, which he had worked on from 2005 to 2010.

The now-discontinued Polaroid Type 55 film produced a high-quality black-and-white negative alongside a positive print, both of which were processed simultaneously within 30 seconds of being removed from the film holder. Rather than fixing the print and negative immediately, Rentsch allowed them to continue processing for weeks, months, or even years. In most cases, the positive prints became unusable, as ongoing chemical reactions partially or completely obscured the figures in the images. However, he sepia-toned the black-and-white negatives, and the impurities that developed over time resulted in fascinating and unique images. The series has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions and works from it are held in several collections.

While sorting through the rediscovered boxes of Polaroid prints, Rentsch found many images with new potential for a body of work, provided he could find a way to reveal the figures once again. Using a brush and black paint to retrace the lines originally drawn with a flashlight and captured with a 4×5-inch camera, he brought the figures “back to life.”

Rentsch began working on “Entangled with Justice” after seeing the disturbing images documenting the humiliation and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. The project launched a long and introspective exploration of how fate, geography, and politics influence the administration of justice. His work is anchored in a moral sensibility rooted in his upbringing on a prison compound in Switzerland, where his father served as warden. These early visual and real-life experiences nurtured a sense of empathy for the human condition that has become a guiding force in both his life and his work.

Howard Tran

The work of Howard Tran, Logan A. Richmond Endowed Professor, explores the Vietnamese/Chinese philosophy that is influenced by Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism — stressing simplicity, worship of ancestors, the cycles of life and connection to nature. His work examines the connections between generations, as well as transition, of moving between East and West. Tran teaches sculpture, drawing, figure modeling and ceramics.

Art at Lycoming College

The Lycoming College Art Gallery, located in downtown Williamsport at 25 W. Fourth St., contributes to the city's arts culture and allows the College to become more involved with the surrounding community. Lycoming art students have the opportunity to interact with visiting artists and learn first-hand the inner workings of an art gallery. The gallery is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 4-8 p.m. For more information, please visit the gallery online at: https://www.lycoming.edu/art/gallery/22-23.aspx.