91ֱ��

Artwork featured above: “Winter” by Jennifer Bock-Nelson (watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil)

CANTON, Mo. — The 2025 Faculty Biennial Exhibition at 91ֱ�� will feature works from faculty and emeritus artists across a range of disciplines, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, digital media, and fiber arts. The exhibition opens Thursday, Sept. 4 with a reception from 5:30–7:30 p.m. and an artist talk that starts at 6 p.m. The exhibition will be held at the Mabee Gallery on the main level of the Herrick Foundation Center and is set to close Friday, Oct. 17. 

“The exhibition underscores the depth and diversity of 91ֱ��’s faculty, highlighting their professional accomplishments and creative practices alongside their teaching,” noted Jennifer Bock-Nelson, director of the Mabee Gallery and assistant professor of studio art.

Debra Scoggins-Meyers, “I will love you till the cows come home” (encaustic)

Participating artists include:

• Jennifer Bock-Nelson, MFA in painting and drawing
• Jeffrey Johnson, assistant professor of graphic design, MFA in illustration and visual culture
• Dustin Pruitt, assistant professor of communication, MFA in digital filmmaking
• Carol Clay Mann, adjunct instructor, MFA in sculpture
• James Zimmerman, adjunct instructor, art educator at Hannibal High School and owner of CoolByke Bicycle Shop, Master’s in Education
• Brittany Welker, adjunct instructor, art educator at Canton High School, Master’s in Art Curriculum
• Debra Scoggin-Meyers, professor emeritus of art, MFA in painting and drawing, exhibiting artist at Alliance Art Gallery in Hannibal, Mo.

Featured works include Zimmerman’s “Smothered Hearts” (acrylic on canvas), Bock-Nelson’s “Winter” (watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil), Johnson’s “Gunchiss, The Warrior Who Died a Thousand Deaths” (ink and gouache), Pruitt’s “Beyond the Frame” (digital photograph with augmented reality integration), Scoggin-Meyers’s “I will love you till the cows come home” (encaustic), and Mann’s “Flight of a Million Tears” (fiber).

Bock-Nelson, whose work reflects on human presence in an age of overwhelming digital stimuli, said her pieces aim to preserve “invisible fragments of the changing world.”

Johnson described his drawings as a record of attention: “They say more than ‘I was here.’ They say, ‘I noticed.’ They say that I gave my time and attention to what was in front of me.’”

Pruitt’s contributions combine photography and augmented reality to highlight themes of memory and place. “Even when extended through augmented reality, these works remain fragments of time: gathered, layered with meaning, and preserved for the viewer to step into,” he said.

The Mabee Gallery hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–4 p.m.