Hilliard University Art Museum offers new spring exhibits

LAFAYETTE — New exhibitions are open at the Hilliard University Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. They will include works from the permanent collection as well as works by regional artists, according to the museum’s news release.
Truth and Identity:
Questions for the Self in Works by Gary Chapman
Through May 16
Viewed through the lenses of popular culture, identity politics, and religious and social environments, this exhibition explores Gary Chapman’s search for an ultimate “truth” in one’s identity. It follows the artist’s pursuit through paintings and mixed media works titled: The Helmet Series, Children Searching, Adults Searching, Related Incidents, and The Altars.
Chapman juxtaposes and layers images and objects that suggest moments in time. These pursuits stem from his own concerns about his place in the world. His search echoes the modern world filtered through social media, and popular media, as well as cultural, religious, and political realms that seek to define humankind from an outside perspective rather than from internal knowledge.
The New Sublime: Video Works by Courtney Egan
Through May 16
This multimedia exhibition by the New Orleans-based artist, Courtney Egan, will bring a touch of spring into the museum. Her botanical art is composed of projection-based sculptural installations that create a surprising association with myth, fairy tale, and modern technology.
“We get closer and simultaneously farther away from the natural world when we experience it through a technological lens,” Egan said. “This new kind of sublime, in which human experience is mediated through a digital device, is enjoyable, illuminating, and disturbing.”
Henry Botkin: Evolution (Part 2)
Through April 18
Henry Botkin: Evolution (Part 1), shown in fall 2014, focused on the early 20th-century works of Henry Botkin, illustrating how he explored various aspects of European Modernism. Part two of Evolution makes it clear that Botkin found his voice in abstract expressionism, a uniquely American style developed in the middle of the century. By the 1960s, he had found his mature style, which combined strongly gestural and expressive lines with abstracted forms and the use of collage to interrupt the surface of his canvas. The scale of his works increased considerably as well, another influence of abstract expressionism.
The Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum features 11,000 square feet of gallery space and is the largest exhibition space between Houston and New Orleans. It houses a collection of 18th- through 21st-century European, Asian and American art. In addition to its permanent collection, it offers changing exhibitions of regional, national and international art.
The museum is at 710 E. St. Mary Blvd., on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesdays; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays.
For information, visit hilliardmuseum.org or call 337-482-2278.