2020 Retiring Faculty

James Krehbiel

Nancy La Porte Meek Professor of Fine Arts
(1986-2020)

Professor of Fine Arts James Krehbiel retired in May 2020 after 34 years at OWU. Hired in 1986 to teach printmaking and drawing, Krehbiel also developed the computer imaging component of the Fine Arts curriculum and for 21 years served as chair of the Department of Fine Arts.

Krehbiel received his MFA in Printmaking in 1984 from Indiana University, graduating with distinction. His BAA in Painting and Sculpture is from Montana State University, where he graduated with honors in 1978. He also studied in 1977 at L'Universite' des Lettres et Sciences, Avignon, France.

Long before the coining of The OWU Connection, Krehbiel exemplified its ideals in his crossing of the disciplinary lines between the fine arts and science. Through many years of dedicated and meticulous on-site research of the kivas and other cultural structures of the indigenous Ancient Puebloan people of the North American west, Krehbiel became a recognized authority in the field of archeoastronomy, serving as principal investigator for the Archaeoastronomy Survey in Southeast Utah from 2012 to the present, and as a surveyor for the Bureau of Land Management.

In the past 10 years, he has surveyed and published research progress reports on more than 1,200 sites for the Bureau of Land Management and published an article on “Ancient Celestial Observatories” in Archaeology Southwest Magazine. Krehbiel's research has been funded by numerous grants from the Department of Heritage and Arts, the Utah Division of State History, and by T.E.W. Foundation and Mellon Foundation New Directions grants from OWU.

Krehbiel has been a popular and much sought-after lecturer, exploring and illuminating the intersections of art and science. In recent years, he could be heard as often in the lecture halls of science and religion departments as in those of the fine arts. He has presented on his research for the Department of Religion at Denison University, the departments of Physics and Art at Eastern Illinois University, the Department of Anthropology at Seminole State College, the departments of Anthropology, Art, and English at Muhlenburg College, and the Columbus College of Art and Design, as well as at various chapters of the Archeological Society of Ohio.

During his tenure at OWU, Krehbiel exhibited his work in printmaking and digital media widely in the United States and internationally. His work traveled for two years in New Zealand and Australia, where it was exhibited in prestigious venues including the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and in Australia at Deakin University, the Canberra School of Art, and the Flinders Museum of Art, among many others.

Over the years Krehbiel's work received recognition by jurors and curators from important museums and galleries such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Salander O'Riley Gallery in New York City, and the Yale University Art Gallery. He held solo and group exhibitions at The Ohio State University, Albion College, Baldwin College, University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, Allegheny College, University of South Carolina, University of Northern Kentucky, and University of Warsaw, Poland.

In 2020, Krehbiel relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he continues to pursue his art and archeological research.