MILLEDGEVILLE — Internationally acclaimed political artist Sue Cole will connect her work and animal abuse in a talk at Georgia College & State University as part of a week-long Artist-in-Residence visit from March 29 through April 2.  An exhibit of her works is now on display through April 16 at the GCSU Museum of Fine Arts, 102 South Columbia St.

As part of the Visiting Artists and Scholars “Word + Image” series, Coe will give a lecture on Thursday, April 1, at 6 p.m., at GCSU’s Arts and Sciences auditorium, on the exploitation of animals through the lens of a painting she produced of a slaughterhouse next to which she lived as a child.

The title of the talk is “Topsy: The Elephant We Should Never Forget,” and Coe will also discuss her recent work about the use of elephants in history to promote empire building with a focus on Topsy, the abused Coney Island circus elephant that Thomas Edison electrocuted with high voltage AC currents in 1903.

Edison staged a publicity campaign in an effort to win a contract as the DC electrical provider for New York City by demonstrating the dangers of AC currents on Topsy in front of a crowd of about 1,500 spectators.  Coe’s most recent exhibition at the Galerie St. Etienne, "Elephants We Must Never Forget: New Paintings, Drawings and Prints by Sue Coe," will be published this year.

During her residency at Georgia College, Coe will conduct workshops with students and create a limited edition woodblock print, published exclusively by the Department of Art, with the assistance of art students and under the guidance of the Department Chair and head of Printmaking, Bill Fisher. 

An art reception for the GCSU exhibition will be held on Wednesday, March 31, from 5-7 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts. 

Both the talk and the reception are free and open to the public.

This exhibition is a 10-year survey of her perspectives on social and political issues via the use of oil paintings, drawings and prints.  The first solo exhibition displayed at Georgia College’s Museum of Fine Arts, this exhibition is curated by Assistant Professor of Art Carlos Herrera.  The exhibition may be viewed during regular museum hours, Monday through Thursday from 12-4 p.m., with the exception of spring break week March 22-26, and by appointment.

Coe is considered one of the foremost political artists working today. Born in England in 1951, she moved to New York in the early 1970s. Coe has spent years documenting the acts of violence perpetrated by people against animals and one another. She uses printmaking as a means to reach broad audiences and effect change. Her series of prints, The Tragedy of War, examines the atrocities that humans commit in times of war. Other projects include Bully: Master of the Global Merry-Go-Round (2004), a scathing critique of the Bush administration, and Sheep of Fools: A Song Cycle for Five Voices (2005), which investigates the history of sheep farming and the abuses of the animals for human gain. She has been featured on the cover of Art News and in numerous museum collections and exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.

For more information, contact Gallery Coordinator Carlos M. Herrera, (478) 445-7025, carlos.herrera@gcsu.edu, Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Committee Chair Elissa Auerbach, (478) 445-0808, elissa.auerbach@gcsu.edu, or the Department of Art: Ainsley Eubanks, (478) 445-4572, ainsley.eubanks@gcsu.edu.

Georgia College & State University, the state’s only Public Liberal Arts University, combines the educational experience expected at esteemed private liberal arts colleges with the affordability of public higher education.  Its four colleges – arts and sciences, business, education and health sciences – provide 6,600 undergraduate and graduate students with an exceptional learning environment that extends beyond the classroom, with hands-on involvement with faculty research, community service, residential learning communities, study abroad and myriad internships.