BUCKHANNON, West Virginia – West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Sleeth Gallery will host an exhibit by Matthew Fields Nov. 2-Dec. 2, 2023. A reception for the solo exhibition, entitled Self-Awareness: An Introduction to Labor will be held Thursday, Nov. 2 from 4:30-6 p.m. with Fields giving an artist talk at 6 p.m. Sleeth Gallery is located in McCuskey Hall.

Fields, an assistant professor of art at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2021, and his Bachelor of Science in visual arts from UAPB in 2019. In 2020, between his time in Pine Bluff, he returned to his hometown of St. Louis where he worked as an interior and exterior painter while finishing up his graduate studies.

“The work created in conversation with my written thesis, ‘The Labor of the African American Experience,’ is a contemporary installation including both traditional approaches to art making as well as three-dimensional structures to frame the work in the context highlighted by the writing,” Fields said.

“During my time working as an interior/exterior painter, I came to realize the symbolism embedded in the practice of transforming a space,” Fields continued. “The largest being how the United States is founded on the recreation of a space that already existed, and consequentially how the formerly enslaved had to work for the space to evolve in this country.”

For more information about Fields and to view more of his work, visit his website unartistikcreations.myportfolio.com.

ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
West Virginia Wesleyan College (WVWC) is a private, four-year residential liberal arts and sciences college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. A tradition of excellence for more than 130 years, West Virginia Wesleyan is home to 14 Fulbright Scholars. The Princeton Review ranked Wesleyan as one of its 2024 Best Colleges in the Southeastern Region of the United States. U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-2024 Best College Rankings designated Wesleyan eighth in Best Value – Regional Universities (South). WVWC offers students more than 50 majors and 40 minors; graduate programs in athletic training, business administration, creative writing, nursing and clinical mental health counseling; 20 NCAA Division II athletic programs; multiple performing arts groups; and more than 50 organizations. Founded in 1890, the College is closely affiliated with the United Methodist Church and abides by the Wesley doctrine that emphasizes service to others. For more information, visit wvwc.edu.