CITRUS FLUX
LAUREN ASHLEY S. BAKER | JESSICA DEHEN | KARRI LEAMON
OCTOBER 13 - NOVEMBER 16, 2023
Opening Reception and Artists' Talk
Thursday, October 12, 5-7pm
FGCU Art Galleries has long had a practice of bringing Art Program alumni back to exhibit their work as artists. This year, we are bringing back to campus three artists who have each recently completed their MFA: Lauren Ashley S. Baker (BA 2010 FGCU, MFA 2018 Florida State University), Jessica Dehen (BA 2014 FGCU, MFA 2022 University of Miami), and Karri Leamon (BA 2018, MFA 2022 Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis).
Together, these artists span the gamut of materials from traditional paintings on canvas to sculpture, to video projection and installation art. All are currently teaching and creating in their institutions. They come to us to share their questions and answers that allow us to better understand how to make art, study art, and teach art.
Sponsored by the FGCU Alumni Association, Gene and Lee Seidler, The Wasmer Endowment, WGCU Public Media and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts
Image Credit: Design by Anica Sturdivant
Lauren Ashley S. Baker
Baker received her MFA from Florida State University in 2018 and her BA from Florida
Gulf Coast University in 2010. Lauren Ashley S. Baker is an interdisciplinary artist living in Syracuse, NY. Her
art practice encompasses drawing, performance, video, installation, sculpture, and
photography. Her work brokers a relationship between the two and three-dimensional
concrete realities to investigate the bounty of representational and perceptual possibilities.
The overarching themes and influences in Baker’s work include: the observer effect,
the Anthropocene, and the writings of Antonin Artaud, Julia Kristeva, and Walter Benjamin.
Artist's website: laurenbakerart.org
Jessica Dehen
Jessica Dehen graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2014 with her bachelor’s
degree in Visual Art, as a President’s Gold Scholar and with honors. In Spring 2022,
Dehen received her MFA in Painting from The University of Miami. During her undergraduate
career, she served as studio intern for the Robert Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva,
FL and, in spring of 2012, was awarded the Vitelli Arts and Culture Grant by Florida
Gulf Coast University. Dehen has exhibited in numerous university showcases during
both her graduate and undergraduate career and has additionally exhibited in various
group exhibitions across the state of Florida. Dehen joins us for this exhibition
upon completion of Burren College's 2022 Summer Artist's Residency in Ballyvaughan,
Ireland.
Artist's website: jessdehenart.com
Karri Leamon
Karri (Tee) Leamon recently received her Masters of Fine Arts in 2021 from Indiana
University Purdue University Indianapolis, Herron School of Art and Design, where
she pursued sculpture and furniture design. She was born and raised in Fort Myers,
Florida where she received her BA in Fine Art from FGCU in 2018, with a concentration
in sculpture. She is currently based in Indianapolis, where she is a sculpture instructor
at Indiana University.
Artist's website: teeleamonart.com
