Painter to exhibit artworks at Southeast

The University Museum presents a highly stylized art exhibit by Audrey Ushenko, a painter and associate professor of Art at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Ind.

Since the early 1970s, Ushenko has employed allegory and myth in her figure paintings in order to explore broad questions concerning the nature of knowledge, faith, belief, and mortality. She creates highly stylized, dramatic, and serial tableaux in which the artist's persona is a constant presence.

Ushenko's mythological and allegorical "dramas" are typically staged in contemporary, often suburban, settings. The protagonists include for the most part herself, friends, and colleagues, who retain their individual characteristics but represent universal signifiers. Typically they are members of the academic or professional meritocracy, whom Ushenko treats with both compassion and irony.

An exhibition of her work opens Friday, Oct. 5 at the University Museum with a reception scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. The exhibit continues through Nov. 18. The museum is located at 122 Memorial Hall on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.