While institutions become known for the faculty they house, the insertion of new styles and aesthetics can often be a tough fit. The U of A certainly has a build up of modernist painters and steel sculptures along with a burgeoning art and design program and a world renowned printmaking program, and so it's with some amount of joy that the he two individual shows by new U of A Fine Arts faculty, De Anima by Maria Whiteman and Daniela Schlüter's beyond an entrance, demonstrate two completely different and contemporary aesthetics that share a foundation in print.

Convening together at FAB Gallery with each artist putting forward their works and aesthetics to share with their new artistic communities, the show was organized by department Chair Betsy Boone, who is obviously trying to steer the department forward and emphasizing the artistic activity of her new hires.

While Schlüter dominates the second floor with her vividly textured paintings of along with a video project and print samples, Whiteman's photographic rendering of the animal in our collective conscious linger below. With the addition of a fellow new hire at the U of A, Scott Smallwood from the Music Department, Whiteman's works come alive with the aural presence of the animal, which cannot be contained to a flat image. Although the audio and visual are not necessarily integrated, save for the lush long table of artificial grass and sounds where the experience opens up beyond standing in any particular space, the addition of Smallwood's wireless audio works were some of the most fascinating elements of the show and deserved more background information as to the what and why's of this collaboration. I can only think of past cross-faculty collaborations where printmakers and poetry professors came together, with both roles clearly active in each other's works, and as a new direction begins, I can only hope that collaborations will continue and be clarified.

Exhibition runs March 2 - 27, 2010