DSU Associate Professor of Art Explores Family in Current Exhibition

Dr. Donald W. Becker, chair of the DSU Art Department, is featuring an exhibition in the DSU Arts Center/Gallery of his works that delve into his family roots

 

Dr. Becker’s exhibition entitled “Sheren Ho Wanen” will be featured in the Arts Center/Gallery until March 18 and is free and open to the public.

 

It features 25 print works and an installation piece, that all represent symbolic expression of his family. The associate professor, who has been a DSU faculty member since 1997, said that the exhibition is the product of seven years of work.

 

“All of the works are derived from symbolic references to my family and where I grew up in the Adirondack Mountain in upstate New York and by Lake Ontario,” Dr. Becker said.

 

The Sheren Ho Wanen is one of three families within the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Tribe. Dr. Becker is a distant relative of that family.

 

“I have a large and complex family,” he said. “Part of my family has been here for thousands of years and some got here in the 1600s.”

 

Among the exhibition works are some woodcut prints, etchings, as well as an installation piece – of handmade paper, avocado shells, muslin and tar paper – that is a prototype for a future work. “(The installation work) is a small model of something I want to make as a permanent installation someplace,” Dr. Becker said.

 

The DSU Arts Center Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.