March 30, 2018

 

Mooring

 

MSUB professors featured in local art exhibition

Open to the public April 13-14

 

Contacts:

University Communications and Marketing, 657-2266

 

2. Mooring, detail, Mark Earnhart, Aluminum and Kevlar Thread
MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — Montana State University Billings art professors Mark Earnhart and Jodi Lightner are featured in Mooring, an exhibition about the engineering and history of the Zeppelin Airship in Germany, presented by artist collective MIXX. 

 

This exhibition features art by Mark Earnhart and Jodi Lightner in a two-day show held at 4ZERO7 Gallery, on Friday, April 13, from 5–8 p.m. and Saturday, April 14, from 3-6 p.m. The public is welcome to join us for art viewing, discussion and refreshments.

 

Mooring was first exhibited in Friedrichshafen, Germany, a major producer of aviation technologies with a long history in the field of aeronautics and engineering. It is also most notably the site where the first Zeppelin Airships were designed and are still built today. There is the immediate fascination with the matter of scale these vessels inhabit and the gigantic infrastructures required to keep them afloat. Mooring examines the notions of these containers of invisible gas, lighter than air and unbound to conventional flight.     

 

Earnhart’s work in Mooring  embraces the action of adhering to a fixed point. His aluminum installation requires collaboration of elements to describe tension, balance, and counterweight. The hand cut Mylar drawings of Lightner reinterprets the structure that makes flight possible with a focus on the tethers that maintain volume in the giant dirigibles.

 

Vault, Jodi Lightner, Acrylic on Mylar, 18” x 18”
Earnhart is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Montana State University Billings where he has taught since 2013. He earned a BFA from Ohio University in 2007 and an MFA from the University of Maryland in 2013. He was the Sculpture and Ceramics Studio Technician and Adjunct Faculty at Marshall University from 2007 to 2010.

 

Lightner completed her MFA degree at Wichita State University in 2010 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Montana State University Billings.

 

MIXX is a collective of locally based artists working together to exhibit and share ideas with the community. MIXX artists include; Jane Wagoner-Deschner, Mark Earnhart, Lillie Grace, Jodi Lightner, Jon Lodge, Gordon McConnell, and Keeara Rhodes. Upcoming exhibitions include an audio-visual exhibition featuring Keeara Rhodes in July 2018 and a solo exhibition in September 2018 showcasing new work by Jon Lodge.

 

The 4ZERO7 Gallery is located at 407 N. 24th St. in Billings, Mont.

 

For more information, contact Jodi Lightner at 620-200-1615 or Jodi.lightner@msubillings.edu, or contact Mark Earnhart at 513-850-4352 or mark.earnhart@msubillings.edu.

 

Image credits:

  1. Interstitial Parallels, Jodi Lightner, Acrylic on Hand Cut Mylar
  2. Mooring, Mark Earnhart, Aluminum and Kevlar Thread
  3. Vault, Jodi Lightner, Acrylic on Mylar, 18” x 18”