script

Blaine Whisenhunt, M.F.A.

Portrait of Blaine Whisenhunt.

Office: Pool Art Center 111
Phone: (417) 873-7484
E-Mail: jwhisenhunt@drury.edu
Website: blainewhisenhunt.net
Band: ozarksheiks.com

Spring 2024 Office Hours

On sabbatical.

Blaine Whisenhunt, M.F.A.

Associate Professor of Art

Associate Professor Blaine Whisenhunt joined the Drury Art and Art History Department in 2004 to develop the Sculpture studio and curriculum. Since that time he has taught Drawing, Foundations of Studio and Design, all levels of Sculpture, Video Art, Drawing, and served as Coordinator of Foundations. He is currently developing and teaching Praxis Studio for the department of Art and Art History and will serve as program co-director for Ethical and Global Foundations in Greece, a study abroad program for summer 2014.

Blaine is both an accomplished musician and visual artist. His music, which can be associated with the emerging New Weird America or Post-Punk Blues indie music genres, has been reviewed in various music publications including Dirty Linen and Sing Out! Blaine is currently recording and performing with the Ozark Sheiks (founding member, singer, guitar, songwriter).

Though trained as a sculptor, Blaine considers himself to be a post-media contemporary artist whose work is not reliant on a specific medium, discipline or style. He sees his work as a vehicle for socio-political and cultural criticism, underpinned by a nexus of timeless and emerging philosophical inquiries. More recently his work has explored a shared language with architecture as represented in recent examples Rhizomatic Grotto (large scale public installation) and Rhizome (solo exhibition). Blaine’s work has been shown nationally and internationally in both group and solo exhibitions including New York City, San Francisco, and Glasgow, Scotland.

Associate Professor since 2013
Drury University faculty member since 2005 

Education

  • B.F.A., University of Central Arkansas, 1997
  • M.F.A., Sculpture, Louisiana State University, 2000

Scholarly Research Interests/Projects

MATERIAL TECTONICS: ARCHITECTURAL AND SCULPTURAL SYNERGISM

“Architecture is inhabited sculpture” -Constantin Brancusi

The relevance of tectonics to both sculpture and architecture will be examined via a variety of sculptural and architectural means, purposely activating the theoretical and pragmatic territory they share. Engaging directly with explorations in materiality, the project aims to arrive at innovative modalities in both architectural and sculptural practice that will in turn catalyze ways for each to provide agency for the other. With tectonics as a driving force, a diverse series of sculptural experimentations and architectural design investigations (using mostly common methods and materials such as concrete, wood, steel, conventional construction) will seek to demonstrate the ability for both art and architecture to be holistically conceived and then iteratively and poetically developed through self-referential design methodologies.

Exhibitions/Galleries/Etc.

2010-13
Run Devil Run, Music Recording
Producer, Rick Parker
The Ozark Sheiks, Founding Member

Rhizomatic Grotto (Outdoor Sculpture/ Participatory Installation)
with Art of Space
65’ x 45’ x 13’
Springfield Art Museum

Rhizome (Solo Exhibition)
Pool Art Center Gallery
Springfield, Missouri

Emerge (Outdoor Public Installation)
Visiting Artist and Project Director
Art of Space

MART: After Five (Group Invitational)
Pool Art Center Gallery
Springfield, Missouri

Mission Accomplished
(National Invitational Exhibition)
Decade Retrospective Exhibition,
Participating Sculptor and Panel Participant
Athens Institute for Contemporary Art
Athens, Georgia

Art Department Faculty Show (Group Invitational)
Pool Art Center, Drury University
Springfield Missouri

MOAK 4 State Regional Exhibition 2010
(Juried Biennial Exhibition, AR, OK, KS, MO)
Springfield Art Museum
Springfield, MO

CoRE House Proposals (Competitive Design Exhibition)
Hagerman New Urbanism
Springfield, MO

Previous

  • Indoctri-N A T I O N Pool Art Center Gallery, Springfield, Missouri
  • Marching Orders University of Arkansas Fine Art Gallery, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • Sinkholes and Reflection Pools Murphy Foster Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • Solving for X Murphy Foster Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • MOAK 4-State Regional Exhibit 2008 Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
  • Home of the Brave: Politics, Propaganda, and Patriotism FGCU Art Gallery, Fort Myers, Florida
  • Playing for Keeps Atlantic Gallery, New York City
  • WHYGTS? 2007 Atlantic Gallery, New York City
  • MOAK 4-State Regional Exhibit 2006 Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
  • Terror? Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California
  • America on the Brink: A Political Exegesis Under the Aegis of the US DAT ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Inc., Athens, Georgia
  • What Have U Got 2 Say? 2006 Mana Fine Arts Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey
  • Liberty and Security in a Post 9/11 World Pool Art Center Gallery, Springfield, Missouri
  • Art Not Oil Mono Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
  • Works on Paper LSU Union Art Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • No Dead Artists Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana