Hope Junior Nathan Klay to Have
Exhibition at Butch’s Dry Dock

HOLLAND - An exhibition of photographic works by Hope College junior Nathan Klay of Holland will open at Butch's Dry Dock in downtown Holland on Saturday, Feb. 5, with a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Titled "Things I Didn't Make," the exhibition will continue through March. Butch's is located at 44 E. 8th St. in downtown Holland.

The exhibition, Klay's second at the restaurant, will consist of photographic works. The pieces will include imagery from photographs by Klay as well as from sources such as 1950s childrearing books and advertisements for drugs in old psychiatric journals. Most of the works have been digitally altered.

Klay chose the title, he noted, to stress the subjects of the pieces rather than the process of creating them.

"The title of the exhibit, 'Things I Didn't Make,' is meant to de-emphasize any value of craftsmanship or manual proficiency that may reside in the works," said Klay, who is a philosophy and art double major at the college. "The locus of their effect is intended to engage the conceptual and not the retinal."

"I consider myself to be a conceptual artist, not a photographer, painter, printmaker or sculptor," he said. "I may, or may not, use photography, paint, prints or sculpture. I claim no originality, ownership, style (to the extent that it has an effect on the thoughts of the viewer), or sublime manual dexterity."

Klay is a 1998 graduate of Holland Christian High School, and the son of Robin Klay of Holland. His career goal is to become an art professor.

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