Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library is housing two new art exhibits by graduate student Michael Searcy and artist and faculty member Valeriano Ugolini.
Searcy created his photographic and cultural exhibit "What Arrives in Front of Your Face?" after a visit to a Mayan community in Guatemala. The photos were taken by three members of the K'ekchi' culture who had never held a camera before.
Searcy told the participants to take photos of things they like to look at, or translated in the Mayan language, things that "arrive in front of their faces."
An anthropology graduate student at BYU, Searcy studied journalism and media production as an undergrad at the University of North Texas.
His photographs are on display in the library's Hallway Gallery on the second level.
Ugolini uses more than just paint as his medium for his exhibit "Visions." The paintings' frames, in the shapes of cathedral-like towers or medieval columns, are actually part of the art and all the pieces have a theme running through them.
Ugolini's artistic interest in religion took him to the Vatican to study art and eventually brought him to Utah to teach on the subject.
A BYU professor of art, Ugolini worked in his native Italy before moving to Utah in 1991. Before coming to the States he was employed as a graphic designer and taught at the Ateneo Artistico in Milan.
His artwork reflects the influence of the Florentine masters of the 13th and 14th centuries as well as his ability to create beauty. In his words, his paintings are "modern icons of an inner life that overcomes the barriers of the spoken words, inspiring feelings beyond time and space."
His exhibit is on display in the Auditorium Gallery on the first floor.
Both exhibitions will be featured in the Lee Library through April.
