The Halsey Institute will present two artist talks by exhibiting artists Bob Trotman and Jody Zellen on Friday, January 31 at 5:30pm in Room 309 of the Simons Center for the Arts located at 54 St. Philip Street on the College of Charleston campus.

The Halsey Institute is pleased to begin 2014 with two exhibitions, entitled Jody Zellen: Above the Fold and Bob Trotman: Business as Usual. Both artists explore the human condition in very different ways. Zellen presents humans in her work as abstracted, nameless ciphers navigating a complex and often violent world. Through her use of one full year of the New York Times “World News” website, Zellen presents us to ourselves through the media, mediated in a variety of ways. Trotman’s approach is much more direct and less abstracted, but his sculptural works address the corporate world with all of its discontents. His larger than life human figures are suffused with dread, melancholy, or desperation, yet they are cloaked in the uniform of the powerful. Through both artists’ works, we see the de-civilizing effects of greed, power, and privilege.