Andrew Douglas Underwood’s exhibit has officially come to Meadows.

Centered around different historic events, time periods and leaders, the exhibit in Hamon Library in Owen Arts Center marks this Dallas-based artist’s second solo exhibition.

Underwood considers himself an artist-researcher who borrows from museum presentation and focuses on historic vignettes to create archives of information.

His exhibits include artifacts, paintings, photographs and maps in addition to his art.

He believes his work is “art as a research-based practice,” meaning he, as an artist, makes work about the research he does himself.

In an interview with Ryder Richards, an artist and professor at Richland College, Underwood said, “I begin by reading, going to the Internet and reaching out to people for help to find the information I need. With the results of my digging, I create an artistic archive, or a dossier, on the subject of my inquiry.”

In creating his art, he says that he first thinks about a moment in time and history, and then thinks about the ways in which he can express it as a narrator, commentator, instigator or a paramour.

“My goal is to provide puzzle pieces that, if combined, could allow someone to imagine moving through a space, time and situation. This goal is what bears on my decision making process for what to include in an archive,” Underwood said. “On another level, I see my body of work as a cumulative effort to challenge artistic conceits, while keeping myself in a state of wonder looking through the annals of history.”

Underwood’s “An Archive of Shadows” explores the notion of perfection and questions the possibility of objectivity in the world.

He explains that he achieves a sort of romantic theme through his historical exhibit as well.

The exhibit in Hamon Library includes Underwood’s legendary works such as The Claude Glass, The Two Lives of Great Tom of Westminster, The Horns of Moses and Hawthorne in Salem.

“My work requires a slower pace, and for the people that are willing to slow down and engage with the work, the reward is a romantic involvement with a cultural movement from history,” Underwood said. “I’m hoping that the expanded scope of the material will make it even more engaging and further expand the limits of what my archives can encompass.”

Underwood’s exhibit is free to the public and will be on display through Feb. 5, 2012.

It is located in the Hawn Gallery on the first floor of Hamon Arts Library in Owen Arts Center.