FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 29, 1999 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 NEW EXHIBITION OPENS AT ANDERSON GALLERY NOV. 7 Installation artist Chaden Halfhill and photographer Carola Wicenti will exhibit recent work at Drake University's Anderson Gallery from Nov. 7 through Dec. 12. There will be an opening reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7 at the gallery, which is in the Harmon Fine Arts Center, 25th Street and Carpenter Avenue. Both the reception and exhibition are free and open to the public. Halfhill, a Des Moines artist and a graduate of Wesleyan University, has spent nearly a decade creating site-specific installations based on his probing interest in the relationship between man and nature. Halfhill's installation created for the Anderson Gallery, titled "Stand," responds to the construction of the gallery as its point of departure. Through the choice of materials used — ranging from cast concrete to stalks of grass — and their unexpected and innovative use of space, Halfhill muses visually on the natural environment and how we relate to it. Wicenti, who recently moved to Jefferson, Iowa, from her native Germany, has been a professional photographer for nearly 20 years. A graduate of the Foto-Akademie in Munich with a master's degree in photography, Wicenti has been engaged in a variety of freelance photography, doing assignments for art book publishers, newspapers and government archives. As a counterpoint to her professional assignments, Wicenti has pursued her own photography, exploring the medium for personal expression. Her deepest attraction is to the unmanipulated beauty of nature, and her lush, oversized images in this exhibition convey her fascination with nature, especially in moments of transition. The Anderson Gallery provides Drake students and the Des Moines community the opportunity to experience the rich diversity of the visual arts, past and present. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is always free. For more information about the exhibition and gallery, call (515) 271-2863.