A new exhibit, entitled “that thing between my teeth is my foot,” opened in the Rozsa galleries last week. Beginning on Sep. 13, the exhibit, featuring paintings and sculptures by Connecticut-based artist Douglas Degges, will be on display until Nov. 2. The galleries are free to enter from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. weekdays and 1 p.m. – 8 p.m. Saturdays.
The Rozsa’s A-Space gallery hosts several showcases every year. The Lode spoke with director Terri Frew at the Friday evening reception about their events. “We show in the fall and winter semesters… Each semester we do a professional contemporary artist from outside the community… We also have a student show at the end of those two semesters featuring various classes that are curated a little bit more by the students,” said Frew.
She went on to say, “I do have a really great group of student workers that I rely on and that goes a long way… Generally speaking, the artists are so excited to have their work here, [they’re] so easy to work with,” about the process of showing exhibitions.
Frew and Degges met at a conference in Denver, where he had an exhibit at the time. “We went to see his art and I thought that’d be a really nice addition at some point in the Rozsa. We try to offer variable programming, diverse programming, and this fit in at the right time,” Frew said.
Degges, an art professor at the University of Connecticut, spoke to The Lode about the exhibition, his feelings on showing works, and his life as a professional artist. He explained the name as a play on the idiom ‘putting your foot in your mouth.’ “This is just a different way of saying that that has a… more intense, emotional quality.”
