Seven Billion Plus will be on view in the art gallery at the Cultural Arts Building on the UNC Wilmington campus Oct. 11 through Nov. 9.
The exhibit features the work of Dan Brawley, Geoff Calabrese, Eileen Doktorski, Jasper James, Richard and Judith Lang, Nii Narku and Zhang Xiao. An opening reception will be 5:30-7 p.m. Oct. 11. The reception is free and open to the public.
The world population hit 7 billion people on Oct. 31, 2011. Even with a declining world-population growth rate of just over one percent, the world population is projected to surpass 9 billion by 2050.
Wilmington, a city of 106,476 people as of the 2010 census, is currently experiencing a 10-year population growth rate of 40.4 percent. Seven Billion Plus is an invitational group exhibition, which will examine population growth, urbanization and globalization through photographs, ceramics, installation, mixed-media and sculpture.
Seven Billion Plus features two local artists—Geoff Calabrese, ceramicist and instructor at Cape Fear Community College and Dan Brawley, interdisciplinary artist and director of the Cucalorus Film Festival.
The exhibit also features artists from one of the largest and most rapidly growing countries in the world. Zhang Xiao is a Chinese photographer and 2010 Photography Talent, 2010 MIO Photo and 2011 Prix HSBC pour la Photographie award winner, and Jasper James is a Beijing-based, UK-born photographer who captures reflections of silhouettes overlooking an expansive metropolis.
Also featured is the work of West African artist Nii Narku, whose painting depicts the overcrowded capital of Accra; sculptor and chair of the art department at Mt. San Jacinto College in Southern California, Eileen Doktorski; and Richard and Judith Lang who have collected and photographed over two tons of plastic trash from 1,000 yards of Kehoe Beach along the Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California.
The Art Gallery is located on the ground floor of the Cultural Arts Building, near the building’s main entrance on the corner of Randall Parkway and Reynolds Drive. (Online campus map)
