PERRYSBURG — The Owens Community College Department of Fine and Performing Arts will host Lee Fearnside and Simone Spruce, both of Toledo, as this year’s Artist in Residence.

Fearnside and Spruce will be featuring “Dissecting the Meaning of Community” exhibits that respond to the events of 2020 that have redefined the social world. The two bodies of work will occupy different spaces in the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery on the Perrysburg Township campus, but the works reflect similar questions. Community can be defined by place, identity, affinity, affiliation and is more complex than surveys can portray. The way people talk about community is different with the age of social media, the internet and a global pandemic.

Fearnside’s and Spruce’s work questions concepts of community, the impact of events on community, and invite viewers to consider how they conceive of community.

Fearnside’s “Death Never Dies”

This artwork mourns 27 public figures who died in 2020 with essays and poetry by 40 writers paired with relief print portraits. The public figures range from Eddie Van Halen to Ellis Marsalis Jr., George Floyd to Jim Lehrer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Kobe Bryant. By reflecting on people through words and images, this project asks who and what do we want to say goodbye to, and who and what do we want to remember. Together, these images and words help understand relationships during this tumultuous year.

Spruce’s “Out of the Dark”

This installation has two sections. The first section is shrouded in cloth to create a dark space as the art is illuminated individually by spotlights. This work includes images from Spruce’s “To Serve and Protect” series. In “To Serve and Protect 2” Spruce asked viewers to remember that George Floyd had a mother. His death unified mothers around the world. In his last breaths, George called for her. There are no features on the officer and the Black man’s features are not distinct. Spruce chose to paint the image in that manner because of the history of police brutality.

The exhibit will be open through Aug. 12.