When building a VPA gallery, walls become Decker's canvas

Sometimes, colleagues catch Derek Decker staring at the walls in the Visual Arts Building. The Visual Arts Gallery director is not daydreaming but trying to build a picture in his mind. In a way, the walls are the canvas he uses to design displays showcasing the best work the Purdue University Fort Wayne students and faculty create. Taking time to stare is part of his process.

And, yes, there is an art and craft to Decker’s decisions on where and how things go on the walls. He uses his contemplative state to hopefully inspire visitors to enter their own such world when viewing the galleries.

“My joy is when people walk through the gallery and they are amazed at the ability of these young artists and where it’s going to go from there,” Decker said. “A lot of times I can hear comments as I walk around, and people may not know who I am, so I can be that fly on the wall. It’s great to hear when they say something about how they are amazed by the artwork or the layout, how it really has a flow, then I know I’ve succeeded.”

It’s easy to imagine Decker giving himself a delighted fist pump.

And then a few weeks later, Decker has to start over, meaning he takes down between 50 and 75 pieces just as carefully as he put them up. He notifies students, faculty, or guest artists that the art is ready for pick up, but he stores most.

Then he sands and patches the 650 square feet of walls—PFW hopes to build a 2,550-square-foot gallery in the future—then waits 24 hours for it to dry before sanding again and repainting. It can take a couple of days to place each piece, and then Decker waits until sunset to adjust the lighting.

“It’s like composing a design in that he is trying to create a sense of equilibrium in how it is distributed throughout the space,” said Rebecca Coffman, chair of the Department of Art and Design and professor of ceramics. “The whole focus is to try to make the work, the individual pieces the focus so that your visual experience is not disrupted by the chaos of so many different things.”

A former gallery director, Coffman said the composition depends on the mediums, sizes, and colors of the pieces. Sometimes paintings, ceramics, drawings, and sculptures are included, along with pedestals in the middle. A visual design sense is critical. Decker said one of his mentors is Robert Schroeder, a former curator at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art who teaches metalsmithing in VPA.

There are another 100 pieces each in the first-floor and second-floor hallways. Though professors post their selections, Decker is responsible for patching, painting, and sometimes tweaking positioning.

The work is incredibly personal, not just because Decker is also a ceramic sculpture artist who creates six or seven pieces annually.

“I know the students are working extremely hard because I was a student once,” Decker said, “and it was such an honor when you did have work put in the hallways, even if it wasn’t in an exhibition, just to show you were one for the top in that class for an assignment.”

Decker graduated as a Mastodon in 2006 with a degree in sculpture before earning his Master of Fine Arts from Edinboro University. He’s been part of the PFW faculty since 2012 and the gallery director for a year and a half.

There are over six or seven exhibitions on campus and two off-campus shows each year, and Decker treats every piece he handles as if it were his own. He understands each artist struggles to find their niche, build confidence and command, and hopefully convince others their work is worth investing in. None of it is easy.

“The biggest fear you always hear, and I heard it from my dad, is, `What are you going to do with that?’” Decker said. “It wasn’t until after I graduated grad school that my dad finally said, `Derek, I never understood your path, and you’ve always marched to your own beat, but now I understand.’”

And designing the gallery is how Decker helps artists early in their careers find their worth. There are wonderful benefits, and he is astonished at the skill of others when he gets to work with their pieces.

“Every time there’s something really cool,” Decker said. “Every time.”