"Immaterial"August 25, 2021

The Midland College (MC) Art department is currently hosting “Immaterial,” an exhibit featuring Yvette Cummings, Mica Lilith Smith and Lo Palmer, on view at the MC main campus in the Allison Fine Arts Building McCormick Gallery through September 30.

While the work of each artist differs radically in subject and appearance, they all express powerful and compelling ideas through physical material. This exhibition highlights physical substance from patterned fabric and paint to bobby pins and furniture as a way to look deeper into the immaterial realms of individual experience and cultural narrative. 

Yvette Cummings is an assistant professor at Coastal Carolina University where she teaches painting and drawing courses. She received her MFA degree from the University of Cincinnati. Cummings’ work focuses on the way women are objectified, shamed and abused from an early age. Through narrative painting and installation, the characters in her work deconstruct the gaze we place on the female form and the expectations that come with youth and beauty. She currently resides in Conway, SC where she devotes her time to her studio work, teaching and family. 

Mica Lilith Smith is a visual artist and educator. Smith earned her MFA degree from the University of Cincinnati College of DAAP in 2012. Her work is comprised of fabric installations, paintings, works on paper and video. Smith’s work focuses on the power of femme aesthetics, specifically those connected to trans female self-preservation and survival. Smith has recently moved from Lubbock TX to Omaha, NE to teach at Metropolitan Community College. 

Io Palmer is an associate professor of Fine Arts at Washington State University in Pullman WA. She holds an MFA degree from the University of Arizona, Tucson and a BFA degree from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. Through depictions of cleaning products, laborers' garments and various other industrial and domestic forms, Palmer's artworks explore the complex issues of class, capitalism and societal excess. Trained originally as a ceramicist, Palmer uses a variety of processes and materials including fabric, steel, sound and wood. 

Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. and Fridays 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.  Admission is free.