DI Exhibits
Design Innovation hosts two exhibition spaces - the DI Gallery and MuseLab - that offer Kent State students, staff, faculty, alumni, and affiliates the opportunity to publicly display their artwork, design, research, or fabrication projects that emphasize cross-disciplinary collaborations and reflect the mission of the Design Innovation Initiative.
Call for Exhibit Proposals: OPEN
Design Innovation is accepting exhibit proposals for installation in the DI Gallery. The proposal process is open to all Kent State students, staff, faculty, alumni, and affiliates and offers the opportunity to publicly display artwork, design, research, or fabrication projects within the DI HUB. Exhibitions can be a work in progress, finished expression, example of technological or scientific innovations, or other project, but should emphasize cross-disciplinary collaborations and reflect the mission of the Design Innovation Initiative.
Spring 2025 Exhibits
Chroma Concepts
Wednesday, April 9th - Monday, April 28th
DI Gallery
Taryn McMahon - tmcmaho5@kent.edu
This exhibit will include work from 14 BA Studio Art seniors who are enrolled in the BA Capstone course. The fourteen artists included in this exhibition are seniors in the School of Art at Kent State University, most of whom have chosen to pursue an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art. Chroma Concepts comprises a selection of works by the artists, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, glass, jewelry/metals/enameling, ceramics, and soft sculpture. The organizing theme of the exhibition is the artist’s diverse approach to color. Through their use of color, or lack thereof, the artists explore 3 overlapping sub-themes: experimentation, obsessions, and human nature. Many of the artists in the exhibition experimented with multiple processes to make interdisciplinary work out of their comfort zones. A significant number of the artists also explore imaginary worlds, characters, and ideas. In this way, they obsessively create new worlds as an escape from, or alternative to, reality. Another selection of artists in the show take inspiration from classical ideas and tropes to question ideas of humans and nature.
Speculative Matter
Monday, April 28th – Friday, May 2nd
Blank_Lab
Laure Nolte – lnolte@kent.edu
Within a design lab environment, we will experiment with hyperlocal superabundant biological materials, exploring cross disciplinary frameworks and speculation as a tool to re-imagine "waste" matter through material generation and fabrication. Informed by emerging theories in new materialism, students will produce speculative materials that reveal narratives about urgent ecological concerns. Students will be expected to critically conceptualize the formats through which these materials and narratives are expressed, which could include but are not limited to 1:1 mock ups, physical models, drawings, animations or video. The semester will culminate in a final presentation and exhibition.
dissect * enmesh * revive
Thursday, May 1st – Thursday, May 8th
DI Gallery
Koon-Hwee Kan – kkan@kent.edu
This research began as a substantive inquiry in digital artmaking during my FPIL in AY2018‒19. Although I do not consider myself a professional artist, capitalizing on visuals to tell intriguing stories and meaningfully represent data has been my strength in academic writing and has enhanced all 25 of my publications in educational journals and books. My artworks, which have primarily been autobiographical, helped me to explore facets of my identity as an overseas Chinese Singaporean intellectual residing in the United States for over a quarter-century. Creatively interpreting my own intangible memories and lived experiences by partially manifesting them through digitization, I aim to ignite a sense of curiosity and positive nostalgia to empower my online international audience living in a chaotic and contentious world.