On Wednesday, Aug. 25, the Nutting Gallery had its opening night for the first artist exhibition of the school year. This month’s featured artist is Beckley, W. Va. native, Robby Moore.

The exhibition, titled “Short, Silent Stories,” showcases a variety of Moore’s work. As a mixed media artist, Moore’s work highlights his unique ability to communicate and express ideas tactfully regardless of the medium used. His mediums range widely from oils and inks to fabric and thread.

When speaking with Professor Brian Fencl, the current professor in charge of the Nutting Gallery, he had this to say on why Moore specifically was chosen as this month’s artist feature, “Anytime you are putting a gallery season together on campus, we try to think about what classes are being offered, and what types of work or artists have not been shown recently. Robby Moore’s work is really good, timely in how it identifies issues with race, and the techniques he is using can be inspirational for students working in a variety of media.”

Fencl also spoke about the artist talk, a tradition on opening nights where the featured artist can speak with the crowd in the gallery and take some questions from them. Fencle said, “During the artist talk it was a pleasure to have Mr. Shamrico Stanley with us to add to the social issues part of the discussion. Mr. Stanley is WLU’s new coordinator of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the questions and insights he brought to the conversation were excellent.”

When talking about the hopes for the Nutting Gallery this school year, Fencl had this to say, “An exhibition opening is an opportunity for the campus community to socialize and be engaged by what art has to offer. We need those interactions now more than ever, so the opportunity to start the year off this way is very positive. We ended last year in a fairly normal way with two in person exhibitions and openings but we were not able to offer a full exhibition season.”

Moore’s work will be shown in the Nutting Gallery from Aug. 25 until Sept. 23. The gallery, located in the Fine Arts building, is open to the public 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Fridays and weekends are open by appointment only. Entry is free of charge, and masks are required to be worn.

For more information on the Nutting Gallery and a schedule of future exhibitions, visit https://westliberty.edu/art/gallery/ or visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nuttinggallery.

For more information on Robby Moore and his work, visit his website https://www.robbymooreart.com/