Nothing Ever Lasts Forever - A solo exhibition by Jeremy M. Pelt

Written by Amanda Damon

Professor Jeremy M. Pelt has a solo exhibit titled “nothing ever lasts forever” on display from February 4th to March 4th in the Bret Llewellyn Art Gallery (room 312 of the Science and Engineering Technology (SET) building). While many of the pieces are oil paintings, the exhibit also features charcoal, ink, colored pencil, and pastels on a mix of paper and canvas. 

Most of these pieces depict an interior or still-life. The focus on interiors is intentional, as Professor Pelt has always been “interested in the way people curate their own special items” as well as “what happens to those objects overtime when they stop being special.” Several of the pieces also depict refrigerators, a focus that began for Professor Pelt during Covid and combines direct observations with imagined spaces. The show overall, according to Professor Pelt, “talks about preservation, loss, and spaces that are actual, from memory, or imagined.”

 

Art has always been a part of Professor Pelt’s life. Beginning at an early age, he practiced his drawing, starting with all the fun things a little boy can imagine and eventually incorporating the real world to “express ideas in a more “poetic” fashion.” Turning a childhood passion into a career, Professor Pelt became an art teacher at a summer camp in college and fell in love with teaching. In 2009, he began teaching college art classes. After taking a break from teaching to paint murals in Chicago for a few years, Professor Pelt began to miss his former career and started to look for another teaching job. This brought him to Alfred State, where he was “happily surprised to find that they incorporate a Fine Art background into their Foundations for the Digital Media and Animation department.” He began teaching here in the Fall 2021 semester. Professor Pelt does not separate being an artist and being an art teacher, so his position here allows him to do what he loves every day while also helping to inspire the next generation of artists.