Seton Hill's Jodee Harris Gallery will host an immersive and interactive exhibition of the work of new art faculty member Josias Figueirido from September 3 through October 4, 2024 with an opening reception on September 5.

The exhibit, titled “The Garden Ladders,” features a selection of airbrushed paintings on canvas, wall drawings, window decals, neon lights, and animated models through augmented reality. Centered around the topics of friendship and community, the exhibition showcases Figueirido’s signature fictional characters, Piri the Dreamer and Flying Coyote. The characters were born in 2022 in Laredo, Texas, while Figueirido was teaching students who crossed the bridge from Mexico to the United States daily for class. 

“For me, fictional stories blend both imagination and reality and are capable of connecting people cross-culturally. As an artist, fiction gives me control over my stories. I enjoy the freedom of deciding what is possible,” Figueirido says.

An opening reception for “The Garden Ladders” will be held September 5 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with an artist talk with Josias Figueirido at 6 p.m. The event is open to the public.

The Jodee Harris Gallery is located in the Seton Hill Arts Center, 205 West Otterman St., Greensburg, Pa. For more information, please contact Emily Franicola, Gallery Director, at efranicola@setonhill.edu.

Spanish artist Josias Figueirido earned an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a Postgraduate Diploma from the Royal Drawing School, and a BA in Fine Arts from London Metropolitan University. He has been in residence at EMAR by Collar Works, Wassaic Project, Millay Arts, Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Vermont Studio Center, Moritz-Heyman, Dumfries House, and the Fabric Workshop and Museum in the Postgraduate Apprentice Program. His work has been in exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is the recipient of the 2019 Cindi Royce E_nger Fellowship from Second State Press and a 2021 recipient of a Challenge America Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a collaborative project. His work is in private and public collections such as the Horseman Collection of American Art and the Francisco Fernandez del Riego Museum.