Viewer’s Guide to Moby-Dick Artworks on the NKUCampus
By Robert K. Wallace, Regents Professor of English

Schlachter Archives, Room 106, W. Frank Steely Library: Exhibition Moby-Dick Art in Northern Kentucky (Feb. 1 – May 1, 2011, M – F, 1 – 4 p.m.)

This exhibition, in honor of the February 1 lecture by French Moby-Dick book artist Claire Illouz, displays works by national and international artists along with those created by students and alums of NKU classes in Melville and the Arts. International artists include Vali Myers from Australia and Italy, A. C. Christodoulou from Greece, Claire Illouz from France, and Robert Del Tredici from Canada. From closer to home are Aileen Callahan from Boston, Mark Milloff from Rhode Island, and NKU students and alums Kathleen Piercefield, Carola Bell, Nancy Vagedes, Laura Bird Knight, Holly Doyle McAttee, and Danielle Wallace. Artistic media include prints, paintings, sculptures, book illustrations, and a 15-piece Moby-Dick Tea Set. Available by request in the Archives is the NKU copy of Illouz’ artist book The Whiteness, one of 25 in the world.

Eva G. Farris Reading Room, Second Floor of the W. Frank Steely Library. Moby-Dick Posters, Prints, and Sculptures by Frank Stella, NKU Students, and other Artists (Feb. 1 - March 30, 2011, open during normal operating hours of the Library)

On the south wall are twelve posters illustrating different works from Frank Stella’s Moby-Dick series (1985-1993). Four posters are from Japan, two from Germany, one from Switzerland, and five from the United States. These posters show the evolution of the series from the early Wave prints, to a variety of metallic reliefs, to the Dome and Deckle Edges prints near the end of the series.

On the north wall are two posters from Unpainted to the Last, the 1995 book and exhibition by Elizabeth Schultz. The poster with Rockwell Kent’s vertical white whale is accompanied by Moby-Dick artworks created between 1996 and 2004 by NKU students Abby Schlachter, Carola Bell, Laura Bird Knight, and Kathleen Piercefield. The poster with Richard Ellis’s horizontal white whale is accompanied by Moby-Dick art created between 1997 and 2009 by Robert Del Tredici in Canada, A. C. Christodoulou in Greece, George Klauba in Illinois, and Jessica Slone at NKU.

3rd Floor of W. Frank Steely Library (on the wall near Pat Renick’s Stegowagenvolkssaurus sculpture). On permanent display during normal operating hours of the Library.

Shay Derickson, Immortal in their Species, suite of five photographs from an auto graveyard. Created in NKU Melville and the Arts class, 2006

The five titles:

  • A Hump Like a Snow-Hill
  • Less Celestial, I Celebrate a Tail
  • The Right Whale’s Head: Contrasted View
  • A Most Direful and Most Murky Funeral
  • These Brawny, Buoyant Heroes Do Sometimes Sink

Room 403, W. Frank Steely Library, Conference Room of the Dean of Arts & Sciences, September 1, 2010 - August 30, 2011. (M - F, 8:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.)

  • Jordan Small, Ahab, pencil and charcoal on paper. Created in NKU Melville and Douglass class, 2010.

Lobby of the Greaves Concert Hall, first floor, Fine Arts Building. On permanent display during normal operating hours of the Fine Arts Building.

  • Frank Stella, The Whale as a Dish, 1985 - 89, silkscreen, lithography, and linoleum block with hand-coloring, marbling, and collage.
  • Frank Stella, The Hyena, 1985 - 89, silkscreen, lithography, and linoleum block with Hand-coloring, and collage.

Main floor reception area of NKU Honors House. On continuous display during normal operating hours (M - F, 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.):

  • Vali Myers, Stella Maris, giclee print, 2000
  • Mark Milloff, Stripping the Whale, giclee print, 2005
  • Robert Del Tredici, Folly Beast of Earth, silkscreen print, 1997
  • Robert Del Tredici, Boggy Soggy, silkscreeen print, 2001
  • Frank Stella, The Counterpane, poster, 2002

Room 104, Honors House, by appointment.

  • Kathleen Piercefield, Map of the Voyage of the Pequod, giclee print, 2004-07.
  • Robert Del Tredici, Sick Civilized, silkscreen print, 2000 (two states).

First floor reading room, Honors House. On continuous display during normal operating hours.

  • A. C. Christodoulou, The Chase: Third Day, tempera on paper, 1999.

Four additional works from the Honors House are on loan to the exhibition in the Schlachter Archives of the Steely Library until May 1, 2011.