Opening on Wednesday, Feb. 3, West Liberty University’s Nutting Gallery welcomed the art of printmaker, illustrator and educator Doug Eberhardt, known online as, “Void Boy.” Showcased until March 9, Doug Eberhardt, “Prints, zines and drawings from the Void,” offers a truly unique and otherworldly experience to our campus community as the artist explores various and far-ranging concepts in mediums that are just as varied and exciting.

As detailed on his website, voidboy.art, under the “About me” section, Eberhardt can be found to be fairly local, as he is a resident of Western-Pennsylvania. The artist received a bachelor’s degree of fine arts in Printmaking from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2010 and a master’s degree of fine arts from SUNY, State University of New York, New Paltz in 2012. Having worked as an independent illustrator for organizations such as the National Public Radio and the Storm King Art Center, Eberhardt’s work has been seen and shown across the country, notably being featured in the Southern Graphics Council’s traveling Member’s Exhibition and the Mid America Print Council Member’s Exhibition in 2019. Recently, in the Spring of 2020, Eberhardt curated a group exhibition at the Pittsburgh International Airport. Apart from participating in these various galleries, the artist has worked as a professor of drawing, printmaking and screen-printing at his alma mater, Edinboro University, since 2016.

When asked what inspired such a choice of exhibition or what he hoped students might take from the show, Director of the Nutting Gallery, Professor Brian Fencl, spoke on how he often considers the medium, tone, and subject matter of the work of artists that most currently reflect whatever is currently happening in the Hilltop’s art classes when he lays out the season’s schedule for the gallery; “Doug’s work in screen printing and illustration works well with what we have on our schedule and I think students can relate to it… [While] there isn’t any one takeaway from any of [our] shows, I hope that by displaying high quality work from artists who are good at their craft, students will be inspired and possibly see a new direction for their own creative works.” Though the artist isn’t directly connected to WLU in any certain way, Fencl noted that Eberhardt was in the same printmakers group of Pittsburgh as Dr. Martyna Matusiak, an associate professor of art here at West Liberty.