In the making for over a year, the newest exhibit in the Emily Davis Gallery, “Stranger Beings: Hieronymus Objects & Other Curiosities,” opened on Sept. 23 and is now available to the public until Nov. 22.

Arnold Tunstall, Director of University Galleries, planned this new exhibit with a gallery committee containing faculty members and one student.

“Stranger Beings” holds a fusion of two central themes. First is hyper realism and the human figure, and the second is surrealism and human-animal hybrids.

Overall, Tunstall picked certain pieces over others submitted to “excite our student body, specifically in the school of art but also on the campus in general.”

Mark Giangaspero, Katy Richards, Kelly McLaughlin, Erin Taylor Mulligan, Frank Oriti and UA’s own Drew Ippoliti are the regional artists featured alongside work from Hieronymus in the exhibit.

When he received the pieces for this exhibit, Tunstall said he felt a mixture of excitement and terror due to the different works and level of meticulous detail as to what should be included.

Over the summer, Tunstall worked with the collections manager at Hieronymus to mirror the scale and texture variation in the works displayed, as well as the six regional artists to ensure that each would complement each other.

Ippoliti, an assistant professor in the Myers School of Art and coordinator of ceramics, spent several months in Korea at the beginning of this year.

Made possible by a FulBright Scholar award, his experiences in Korea shaped his exploration of how people are affected by external forces and internal feelings.

Giangaspero’s larger than life portraits present a division of strength and vulnerability. Two of his pieces are part of the Butler Institute of American Art’s permanent collection in Youngstown.

Next, Richards’ “Mouth” series focuses on close ups of the body, primarily the mouth. Although the size of her series is modest compared to other artists featured, Richards’ ability to create abstracted but realistic works makes up for the difference.

In 2017, Richards was awarded the Ohio Art Council Award of Individual Excellence. Richards is also a part-time painting and drawing professor at Kent State University.

Another featured artist, McLaughlin, stated in a press release that she creates her ceramic figures “using a combination of personal experience, psychoanalysis and anthropology.”

Tunstall believes McLaughlin is a strong artist who deals with a lot of the themes present in the Hieronymus Collection.

With impressive sizes and a mesh of logic and art, McLaughlin’s figures are able to evoke strong emotions in her audience through the use of realistic figures, color and scale.

Of the many artists featured, Mulligan is one who specifically names Hieronymus Bosch, the inspiration for the Hieronymus collection, as an influence on her work.

Working on a smaller scale, Mulligan integrates animals together to create whimsical creatures that are adorable and alarming at the same time.

Mulligan describes herself as “an explorer with a pencil and a brush in a completely endless landscape of anything imaginable.”

Working in the past with Massillon artist, Frank Dale, Mulligan has displayed her talents at multiple museums, including the Cyrus Custom Framing and Art Gallery.

In contrast to Mulligan’s work, Oriti’s oil paintings can be described as hyper-realistic, as they seem to be photographs at first glance due to high attention to detail.

Located in Folk Hall, the Emily Davis Gallery is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.