11 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(09/13/02 6:03am)
Local photographer Tyagan Miller has captured beautifully the Latino experience and identity among the Bloomington community. His photographs, along with stories and interviews from local Latinos will comprise an upcoming exhibition at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.\n"La Cara Latina de Bloomington," opening Sunday, will feature 20 Latino Bloomington residents in a series of black and white photographs taken by Miller. Accompanying each photograph will be text from subject's interviews, which were compiled by IU students. The text will appear in English, Spanish and Portuguese. \n"The exhibit is really a coming together of community and campus resources to explore what it means to be Latino in the Bloomington community," said Judy Kirk, assistant director at the museum.\nMiller said the exhibit will help eliminate stereotypes among the the Anglo and Latino communities.\n"There are few opportunities for the Anglo and Latino communities to get to know one another," Miller said. \nThe intention of the exhibit is to both dispel common misconceptions about Latinos, and celebrate the diversity and culture of the Bloomington community.\n"First, we want to show the community that we are not like the (stereotypes), and the second part is to celebrate the Latino community and to give them a chance to say 'This is who we are,'" said Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa, the Latino Cultural Center on campus.\nJosé Luis Leyton, a Bloomington High School North student and a subject of the exhibit, wants people to understand that Latinos come from various nationalities, such as Costa Rico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Mexico and Brazil. \n"Here in Bloomington people are open…but there are those people that think that if someone is Latino then they are Mexican," said Leyton, who was born in Santiago, Chile. "They don't understand that you can be from another country and that there are many different nations that make up being Latino."\nCasillas said she hopes the exhibit will convey that the Latino population in Bloomington is as diverse as the rest of the world. \n"Our purpose is to educate the non-Latino community about the integral and equal role Latinos play within our community and to affirm the presence and experience of those within the Latino community," Casillas said. "The exhibit will give people the opportunity to celebrate the depth and variety of the Latino experience within Bloomington."\nMiller said he hopes the exhibit will help foster a better cultural understanding of the Latino community in Bloomington.\n"Perhaps 'La Cara Latina de Bloomington' can help us to know one another better," he said. "We certainly hope it will stand alongside other endeavors whose purpose is to foster understanding, happiness and the good life for everyone in our community."\nThe exhibit's opening will coincide with the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month. A reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday at the Mathers Museum. Performing at the opening is "Sancocho," a song and percussion group focused on African music and dance via the Caribbean Islands, as well as the Brazilian group "Acupe," which teaches the art of Capoeira Angola, a form of martial arts merged with dance and gymnastics. The Web site for the exhibit is www.lacaralatina.org.
(09/13/02 5:08am)
Wendy MacLeod's play "School Girl Figure," a social satire on eating disorders, opens at the Bloomington Playwright's Project this Friday. In this dark comedy, the high school "in-crowd" is the "thin crowd." At this high school, girls are competing to be the thinnest.\n"It's a high school where the girls are competing to disappear," MacLeod said. "The thinnest girl gets the school hottie, and then gets to die, so death is sort of an accomplishment."\nMacLeod said she understands that some may view her comedy as controversial, but she realizes that eating disorders are a growing societal problem.\n"The audience should begin by thinking, 'What's wrong with this playwright?'" MacLeod said. "And then when I have made them laugh they should think 'What's wrong with me?' and when the play is over they should think 'What's wrong with us as a society?'"\nThis season each member of the BPP's board of directors "adopted" a play to help guide its production. President Karen Van Arsdale chose this piece because her daughter is a student of MacLeod's at Kenyon College. She also said the topic of eating disorders was an important subject to address. \n"In reading the script, I immediately saw that the subject of eating disorders has particular significance for me as a social worker," Van Arsdale said. "I rallied a diverse group of psychiatrists and psychotherapists, social workers and psychologists to join together to sponsor this play with their financial contributions."\nBecause of these contributions, there will be a panel discussion on Sunday, Sept. 22, featuring local experts on eating disorders and a certified nutritionist. In addition, educational materials on the disease will be provided at every show. Van Arsdale said the higher percentage of eating disorders in Bloomington is a result of the population of the University. She said anorexia and bulimia tend to be disorders of the young, but that influence is starting to spill out into other areas of the community. She said she feels this play will increase awareness about the seriousness of the disorders.\n"I believe the impact of the play's message will get people talking about eating disorders, about the dangers of such disorders and about the nasty messages our society sends to people who don't look like models or screen stars," Van Arsdale said. "If, by attending the play, just one person changes attitudes about eating disorders or is motivated to help someone they know with an eating disorder, we will have accomplished our goal."\nThe play is directed by Rick Fonte and stars past BPP performers and newcomers, including Anne Acker, Lyndsey Anderson, Kim Chapman, Tenaya Hurst and Brad Fletcher. The cast is rounded out by set designer Mark Smith, lighting designer Rick Todd and costume designer Rebecca Jerrell. Fonte took on this project after "falling in love with it" at the world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2000. \nHe said people's body images are skewed, and he hopes the play will make an impression, if not a change.\n"Eating disorders run unchecked through the youth of America, and the media only serves to further it," Fonte said. "This show is not going to convert you, it's going to make you laugh. And then its going to make you angry. And, hopefully, it will make you think."\nThe play will be in Bloomington from Friday, Sept. 13 to Sunday, Sept 29. The BPP is located at 312 S. Washington St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors.
(09/09/02 6:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the past three years, photographer Arthur Hand has documented the physical and emotional journey of his wife's battle with breast cancer. That documentary has resulted in a moving and uplifting exhibit that confronts Janette Maley's journey through the trials of a ravaging disease.
"A Journey: Two Viewpoints," which opened Friday at the SoFA Gallery, not only documents the physical aspects of the disease, but it also explores the fears and changes which result from the cancer treatment process.
(09/06/02 3:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The message behind Sunni M. Fass's upcoming exhibition is that successful communication requires a shared knowledge of culture, and this shared knowledge comes from an understanding of nonverbal communication in the forms of dress and adornment.
Fass, a graduate student in the Folklore and Musicology Department, curated "Dress Codes: Wearing Identity," as part of her museum practica studies at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. A complement to the museum's main exhibit, "Anthropology of the Body," Fass's exhibit is geared mainly toward children, but all ages can benefit from a viewing.
"I think that when it comes to children's education, what often works best is to help kids relate an unfamiliar topic to something they already understand in their own lives," Fass said. "I decided that clothing is something that children deal with constantly, and it is a very accessible aspect of more complicated ideas of identity and culture."
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
The hum of crickets and air conditioners won't be the only sounds of summer beginning this Friday evening, when the IU Art Museum plays host to local jazz ensemble Marty Hodapp's Swinging Dixie Band. Hodapp's band kicks off the eleventh annual "Jazz in July," when they perform the first of four Friday night jazz concerts during the month of July. \n"'Jazz in July' started 11 years ago," said Joanna Davis, administrative assistant for development and administration at the IU Art Museum. "It was geared toward introducing people to the Art Museum. It is a fun way for people to come visit, especially those who haven't previously thought about viewing art, but would come and listen to music."\nEach Friday night in July, a local jazz band will play for the crowds on the Sculpture Terrace at the IU Art Museum. Friday, the museum will feature Marty Hodapp's Swinging Dixie Band. Other acts featured in this year's July line-up are the Monika Herzig Acoustic Project, the Bill Lancton Coalition and the Amy Stephens Group. \n"Jazz in July" has become such a success for the Art Museum that concert attendance has increased to 150-250 people per night. \n"The original idea was to get people in and introduce them to the Museum," said Davis, the mastermind behind this year's event. "For people who already enjoy the Museum, it gives them a chance to enjoy something else at the museum outside of visual art."\nThe concerts, located at the Art Museum, are free and open to the public. Local businesses such as Bloomington Brewery Company, Oliver Winery and Pizza Express will be present at the event to sell beer, wine and pizza.\nThe event has continued to attract both families and college students to the diverse performances, because the musicians are committed to performing well and engaging the audience, especially in a venue supportive of the arts. \n"The jazz community here in Bloomington is very close-knit," said Davis. "All the musicians work together and flip-flop projects, so for them it is a good mode of publicity, but most of all it is fun for them to perform here"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Dedicated to providing support for local artists, the two-month-old Artists Row art gallery has experienced a great deal of traffic since its June 22nd opening. Local patrons have already exceeded proprietor Mark Stoops' expectations. The infant art gallery, located at 1300 S. Walnut St., has adopted an open-door policy and has vowed to represent local artists, both academics and professionals. \n"There are a number of talented artists in Bloomington, but there is not a place for them to exhibit their work," said Stoops, who bought the building and has contracted his own renovations. "We want to be that place for these local artists." \nStoops and gallery coordinator Barbara Edmonds have created an atmosphere of open creativity and casualness. \n"There are a number of galleries that have a hands-off, museum-like quality, and the intention of this gallery is to create something more interactive," said Stoops. \nHe dedicated his gallery to artists who are rich in both talent and vision, and who are seeking to show their work in an unprejudiced venue. The gallery owner is open to displaying traditional, as well as unconventional works of art because he is most concerned with creating an opportunity for artists who wouldn't otherwise have a chance to sell their art. \n"The gallery has been a great place for me to show my work," said Sayaka Kajita, a recent graduate of IU's MFA program. "Because this is the first place where I have shown my work, it has helped to create a link between myself and the community."\nCurrently, Artists Row is featuring "Please Be Seated," a show dedicated to showcasing unique and handcrafted chairs made by local artists. While these chairs serve as traditional seats, the materials and design of these chairs is anything but typical. \nThe show features such works as Kajita's "Spring Chair," made from industrial metals welded together and Ned Cunningham's "Damn Right I'm a Hoosier Chair," a red metal rocking chair which includes a Brickyard 400 flag, a Budweiser can in a cup holder and a "Jesus Rules" sticker. \nAnother artist, Kerra Fowler, created "A Chair for You and Your Cat," a functional chair made from rigging rope and virgin creeper vines. \nAlthough the chairs are a prominent presence, the gallery is designed so that other artists' work is not overshadowed by the rotating shows. Also on the schedule is a Halloween show, where Gothic and dark art will be the center of attention and a flower show, in which flowers will not only be represented in art, but also used in the creation of the pieces.\nThe gallery has been open to the public since mid-June, but the project is hardly finished. \nDuring the 1920s, the two-story brick building was originally a grocery store, but was later converted into a number of cramped and darkly paneled apartments. When Stoops began renovating at 1300 S. Walnut, he remembered that the building had once been a grocery store, which contributed to his final plans for the gallery. \n"Since the building had once been a grocery store, I knew that it had the capacity for wide open space," he said. \n that wide-open space is stocked full of work by local artists displaying their painting, sculpture, furniture and photography. The viewer is able to move among the works, allowing them to physically interact with the art, seeing it from all views. The front gallery may be completed and stocked with art, but Stoops is hard at work completing renovation of the back rooms of the building, creating a private gallery that can be rented by artists to showcase their work for one to two weeks. \nThe back gallery is scheduled to open Sept. 13, displaying work by Peter Lawrence, a painter who works on a large scale and hopes his art will sell as one unit, instead of selling the pieces separately. In the long run, Stoops also plans to renovate the basement to make room for the growing number of artists with whom the gallery collaborates. \nStoops said he hopes the gallery will be used not only for displaying art, but also as a basis for other creative presentations in the future. \n"I want people to know that (Artists Row) is a starting point, a resource for other things, such as poetry readings and other avenues of creativity," he said.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
In a world where people are more concerned with where they have been and where they are going, little notice is given to the transition between the two -- the present. Artist and MFA sculpture student Richard Saxton has captured a sense of the present in his works, which feature the fusion of connection and isolation. His works embody the connection between one place and another, one time and another, one idea and another, but those connections are isolated in place, time or idea. \n"These days people are moving less, but commuting more, so people tend to pay very little attention to where they actually are, to that transition from place to place," said Margo Handwerker, the gallery manager at the School of Fine Arts Gallery. \nSaxton's work encompasses the societal transition to mobility and movement, which is even reflective of his own career.\n"My ideas are mostly based on existing in limbo, in transition," Saxton said. "For many artists you have to go where the market is, where you can support yourself. The idea of home and the idea of shelter become foreign. My ideas are also reflective of the cultural tendency to keep up and become mobile."\nThe artist uses a number of transitional architectural features in his work, such as doorways, hallways and entryways, to emphasize the element of connection from the outside world to the inside of the home. \n"There is a clear continuation seen in his work," Handwerker said. "There are definite themes in his work and he is narrowing in on transitions within architectural spaces."\n"My work is about highlighting architectural spaces of which we move through, but don't take notice," Saxton said. \nThe idea of pathways as a connector between the home and the rest of the world is a common theme for Saxton, who has spent countless hours with anthropologists researching nomadic groups of people and their concepts of shelter and architecture. Since nomadic peoples are constantly in transition, Saxton was interested in incorporating their concepts into today's mobile society.\nBeginning today, the School of Fine Arts Gallery will exhibit Saxton's "Transitional Structures for Portable People," an interactive installation designed for the "bomb shelter." The "bomb shelter" is an enclosed area in the west SoFA gallery. Viewers are able to enter the work through a conduit, which represents the transition Saxton works to capture in his installation. Once inside the "bomb shelter" the viewer is able to interact with the work both visually and physically. By incorporating the idea of human presence into the work, Saxton has emphasized the elements of movement and change, as well as the person's awareness of their own surroundings.\n"Richard wanted the viewer to make the transition from the main area of the gallery to the bomb shelter," Handwerker said. "The viewer is not concentrating on a painting in the next room or a room made specifically for the painting -- the art is the transition from one thing to another."\nIt is Saxton's intention that the viewer gain an awareness of his existence in space and his relationship to space. \n"What I hope the viewer gets out of the work is that it is about the tension or anxiety drawn from implied architecture and actual architectural elements," Saxton said. "The installation ends in the ceiling among the actual beams and steel, making the viewer aware of drop ceiling in the gallery which implies 'ceiling.'"\nThe installation uses a variety of materials, creating a natural tension within the work. The supporting structure is comprised of 2 x 4s constructed in a tunnel shape or conduit. To juxtapose the solidity of the wood is plastic sheeting, which creates a covering to the entryway and tunnel. In addition to the building materials, Saxton has incorporated electronics. This inclusion represents the infiltration of technology into contemporary society, once again reflecting the idea of transition. \nThe SoFA Gallery exhibition begins today and can be viewed through Sunday, Oct. 6. The SoFA Gallery will host a reception, open to the public, Friday, Sept. 14, from 7-9 p.m. Saxton will also speak at noon on Sept. 21 about "Transitional Structures for Portable People" at ArtBites. ArtBites is an outreach program organized by the School of Fine Arts Gallery to keep the students and greater Bloomington community aware and informed of current community art events and exhibitions.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Don't let artist Peter Lawrence's vibrant palette fool you when you see his work for the first time. \nAlthough his large-scale oil paintings are brilliantly colored, the greatest influences on his work have been tragic literature and poetry, in which the contradiction between the self and nature is evident. Lawrence, who studies philosophy as a hobby, bases his themes around the idea that every person feels they have had a tragic life, even the wealthy and the well-off. \n"If you have ever read Voltaire's "Candide," you will remember when the woman on the boat points out that everyone has had the 'most tragic life,'" Lawrence said. "Even the rich people think their lives have been tragic, because they lack fulfillment and joy. The poor people think their lives are tragic, because they lack wealth and security."\n"Dreamer," Lawrence's current show at the Artist's Row Gallery, 1300 S. Walnut St., searches for an explanation of the human psyche and the reality of human tragedy. Focused on line, movement and color, his works take on an abstract quality that adds to the element of sublimity. \n"I like to take care of the formal qualities of line and space and movement first," Lawrence said. "Then I take a synthetic approach to the figures. I see something in the paint -- a matrix of line and form and then I bring the figures and characters out in the painting." \n"Dreamer," the exhibition's title piece is a fantastic mix of terror and rapture. At first glance the viewer can see the peaceful, sleeping dreamer. But after a second look, the viewer can see that not only gargoyles and sunsets inhabit the painting, but also another dreaming face, this one clearly experiencing a nightmare. This work arose out of the artist's own experimentation with images. \n"I think that if you allow surprises in work, then you can express yourself and achieve a little something more," Lawrence said. \n"The Flight of Icarus" is perhaps most indicative of his incredible use of primary colors to depict the heavy topic of human tragedy. The painting shows a modern version of the mythological story of Icarus, who melted his homemade wings by flying too close to the sun. The work emphasizes the dramatic tumbling of the angel who meets his challenge and then falls to reality, which Lawrence said he views as being expressive of humanity. \n"When I work, I am thinking about the human psyche and the element of human tragedy," Lawrence said. "There is something going on with people when they experience failure and there is always going to be an inner struggle."\n"Girl in the Window" is one of his few works that seems to focus more on form than on movement and color, although the latter elements are not absent from this work. The painting shows a young woman peering out of a window, watching the street below where a car accident is in progress. The young woman is fixated on the scene below, as if the accident were entertainment. Her role as a spectator is reminiscent of the early 20th century AshCan school of painters, John Sloan and George Bellows, who used their work to develop the idea of a spectacle. Lawrence fashioned the scene so the action from the street below seems to flow into the window, invading the girl's space. Lawrence uses this work to point out the blindness of people to events that are affecting their own lives. \n"Carnival" takes on the traditional form of a tapestry. The work, which fills much of the wall at Artist's Row, depicts a struggle between demons and angels, expressive of human drama. The work is influenced strongly by Paul Gauguin's work "Jacob Wrestling an Angel." In a work where water can be seen turning to fire, "Alchemy and Desire" discusses the chicanery hidden beneath the surface of life. It deals with the idea of consumption and viewing the human not just as consumer, but being consumed by life, people and society. \nLawrence, who has never had a piece rejected from an exhibition, received a BFA from Sonoma State University, San Francisco and his MFA from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Elizabeth A. Griffith Award and the Arts Indiana Award, both awarded at the Swope's Juried Exhibition in Terre Haute, Ind. The Artist's Row Gallery will continue to host his current show through Friday, Sept. 28. Lawrence's work will again be on display during the month of January at the Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St.
(10/19/01 4:09am)
Oct. 12, IU's sculpture department celebrated the grand opening of The Fuller Projects, an alternative installation space in the McCalla Sculpture Center on the corner of 10th Street and Indiana Avenue. \nThe building that houses the center used to be the McCalla Elementary School, and the exhibition space is named after Herschell Fuller, the principal of McCalla Elementary School from 1951 to the school's closing in 1973.\nWhen the school closed, the University acquired the building. The old classrooms have been transformed into creative spaces with tall windows and high ceilings, maximizing the daylight and creating the ultimate studio space. The University allowed the building, which houses studios for students, to fall into disrepair. The students with studios in the building have taken the matter into their own hands. \n"This is where our studios are -- it's our second home," graduate student Richard Saxton said. "It reflects the idea that if your landlord lets your house go, you are either going to move or fix it up yourself."\nThe students decided to stay, and the Fuller Projects is the result of their goals to create an alternative viewing space and preserve the history and structure of the building. \n"Part of the reason we created the space comes out of frustration, of not having a space like this in Bloomington, a place to do really contemporary sculpture," Saxton said. "And the other reason we did this addresses the building as something that has fallen by the wayside as far as the University goes." \nThe Fuller Projects, a 750-square foot exhibition space in a renovated classroom, was founded to highlight work from emerging artists who move away from the mainstream. The exhibition space is intended to attract artists working with new ideas in experimental contemporary art. Work from IU students is emphasized, although proposals are accepted from artists not affiliated with the University. \n"What we would like to see happen is the gallery attracting nontraditional installation type work," Saxton said. "What we wanted to do was have this gallery be a place where one can do things that can't be done anywhere else in Bloomington."\nGraduate student Stuart Hyatt's "New Houses Have No Ghosts," is now on exhibit. \nHyatt's exhibition consists of 11 photographs of suburban housing developments. Instead of including real people in his photographs, Hyatt created cartoon-like characters. His figures represent humanity, but Hyatt erases all detail and expression from the faces to reflect what he considers the superficiality of the suburbs.\n"I've taken realistic people and removed all of the detail to cartoonize the figure, and I have also removed any expression to simulate the vacuous nature of the suburbs," Hyatt said. "At the same time I am trying to get across a sense of foreboding, that something has gone awry in the neighborhood. Suburbs are an emotional frontier in that the kids who are born there create a specific life for themselves, dealing with childhood imagination."\nOutside the gallery windows, Hyatt has installed a swingset, occupied by four of his cartoon children. Each swinging child is lit with a spotlight so the viewer can see them through the windows. The children create a ghost-like quality, representing the children who used to attend McCalla and playing off the title of Hyatt's exhibition. The location of Hyatt's swingset is also the location of the original McCalla playground. \n"I wanted people to know that the photographs weren't digitally manipulated, so I included the figures outside," Hyatt said. "I was also making a historical nod to the idea of the playground."\nThe Fuller Projects is expected to be an outlet for contemporary artists who are looking for a space to exhibit their installations. After Hyatt's show is an exhibit by graduate student Wendy Taylor. Richard Saxton's "Free History 2" will then be on display through the beginning of November. The Fuller Projects are open to public viewing, and viewing appointments can also be made through the McCalla Sculpture Center.
(07/05/01 2:46am)
At first glance, the IU Art Museum's installation of Man Ray's Revolving Door (1926) prints may appear to be nothing but an abstract Rorschach test, subject to free associations and loose interpretations. But after close examination of both the titles and accompanying text the true talent and voice of the early twentieth century artist can be seen and heard. \nMan Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzsky, was an American photographer, filmmaker, sculptor and painter, who lived in Paris until the German occupation in 1940. As a young man, Man Ray was influenced and involved in the Dadaist movement and participated in the First International Dada Show held in Paris. The movement was concerned with form, imagery, and color, but most important was the "idea" encompassed in the work. \nThe Revolving Door prints are a set of 10 primary color prints of collages representing an array of different ideas and objects. The order of the prints is thought to be arranged in the same order in which he created them. This progression of images allows for insight into Man Ray's own thought processes and the connections he drew between imagination and everyday life. \n"In his earlier collages, the message was simply about pattern and color, whereas the later ones seem to have more objects as the center of the message," said Nan Brewer, curator of works on paper for the Art Museum.\n"So much of his work was about form and color on a flat two-dimensional surface," said Brewer, "When the colors began to fade, the work was no longer maintaining the original impact of vibrancy." \nAlthough the works are termed "prints," this does not refer to a reproduction of his work. Instead, Man Ray recreated his works in a different medium. When the Revolving Door prints were originally displayed, the prints were organized around a central pole, resembling a revolving door. His intention was for the viewer to interact with the piece, flipping through the different prints and each time opening another "door." \n"Man Ray wanted viewers to interact with the piece, he wanted them to think of it as opening into another way of thinking, or opening a door into the realm of imagination," said Brewer.\nIn addition to the revolving arrangement, there was a long and rambling narrative that accompanies the collection. Although it discusses the prints, it is more a collection of Man Ray\'s own images and thoughts arranged in a free association to allow the viewer space to create his or her own ideas about the work. \nMan Ray was strongly influenced by primary colors, the illusion of overlapping colors and the transparency of colors. He tended to combine abstract design with recognizable objects, as is seen in the third print in the Revolving Door series, titled Orchestra. Here a music stand and the pegs, head and tailpiece of a stringed instrument can be recognized in the vibrant collage. His work tended to push the limits and formal qualities of abstract design.\n"It's a little hard for us realize how shocking these prints truly are," said Brewer. "But when you think back to the dates they were created -- well, people thought they were really avant-garde, revolutionary work. Now collage is very much accepted as a form of art, but in the early twentieth century, the idea of cutting paper and sticking it on to other paper and calling it art was unheard of."\nThe installation appears in the Art Museum in conjunction with "Jazz in July," an event which showcases jazz performances each Friday night during the month of July. Brewer said, "Quality of music was influential and inspirational to Man Ray's work and the viewer can draw a number of ties to early jazz music."\n"It is our hope that people will come to hear the jazz music and then find that the art influenced by that genre of music, especially that of Man Ray," said Joanna Davis, administrative assistant for development and administration at the Art Museum. "We want to introduce jazz lovers to the museum, and show them that music is truly influential in art."\nThe Man Ray installation will be running through Sept. 30, 2001. The installation is free and open to the public, as are all exhibits in the IU Art Museum, which is located on 7th street in the center of the Bloomington campus.
(06/25/01 2:51am)
On a campus so rich in the visual and performing arts, it is difficult to imagine 33 years ago there was little or no outlet for local painters, potters and sculptors to market their work. \n"I knew four or five women -- all painters -- who were selling their work from their garages," said Rosemary Fraser, owner of The Gallery, a downtown Bloomington art gallery. "This was a time before art fairs, and there was a big need to create an outlet for these artists."\nFraser, a local potter and painter, opened The Gallery 33 years ago with friend and fellow artist Peggy Gilfoy. The Gallery\'s intent was to create a market for local artists during the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of the artists featured in the gallery are local figures that have continued to cater to the art market in Bloomington, some of them for the entire period since The Gallery first opened its doors on Grant Street in 1968. One such artist is retired Indiana University professor Rudy Pozzatti. Pozzatti's experience with Echo Press in printmaking has placed his work in such venues as The Library of Congress, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Albertine Museum in London. \n"Printmaking was considered a more legitimate art form than it is now," said Tina Jernigan, employee of The Gallery. "Printmaking uses the same basic principles and knowledge of other types of art, but the artist has to be able to visualize an image in reverse, since the printing process transposes the image. The printmaker does not use just a brush and canvas; instead he must learn to use stones, metals, silkscreen, and he must make decisions about color. Printmaking is a very calculated art form."\nPozzatti\'s displayed work mixes his experience in printmaking with an Egyptian influence. Two of the works, "Double Falcon" and "Egyptian Scrabble II," are mixed media arranged in a collage and mounted on linen. Hieroglyphic elements and the use of triangles and pyramids create an element that lends both uniqueness and exoticism to his work. \nA local artist who has strayed from the traditional ideals of her trade is sculptor Nell Devitt. Devitt, whose studio is located in nearby Bloomfield, works mainly in wood and smoke-fired clay tiles. Against the grain of traditional sculpture, Devitt\'s work is meant to hang on a wall instead of being placed on a pedestal or on the floor. Her work is meant to be eye level so that human interaction with the sculpture is possible. Devitt uses clay to create her geometric designs and to push the intellectual limits of society. \n"The architectural feeling of a grid combined with the curves and references to organic images challenge me to see the ever-changing abundant world within the context of social constraints and political limitations," she writes in her artist\'s statement. \nHer Rectangle Box Series is a monochromatic study of geometric shapes and images as they relate to space and thought. Rectangle Box with Change includes the words: "unanticipated images, deeply ordered chaos, and rules of change." By including these phrases, Devitt is forcing the viewer to interact with not only the piece of art but with their own thoughts. \nRetired Bloomington High School North English and photography teacher Roger Pfingston has moved away from his traditional sepia format and is experimenting with archival ink jet prints. This method uses the computer and special printing paper to create high-resolution, life-like photographs, using little or no manipulation of the original print. The result is a shockingly crisp and brilliantly colorful nature series. \n"Yellow is the weakest color of the spectrum, and this method of archival printing guarantees that the yellow colors will last 100 years, so imagine how well the other colors will hold up over time," said Jernigan.\nIn addition to painting, sculpture and photography, The Gallery also carries an extensive series of pottery by local potters. Richard Burkett's pottery was influenced by his exposure to rural Indiana, and much of his work is reflective of his grandfather's farm implements and tools. His work is truly an example of functional art, works that can be used in everyday life, as well as being an item that carries aesthetic value. \n"My work hovers between pottery and sculpture," Burkett said. "I find this a fascinating interplay, with one body of work informing the other and making both stronger for their interaction." \nThe work he is displaying is designed with the common man in mind. It is Burkett's intention that the pottery becomes an everyday object in an everyday life. \n"(The series displayed is) an ongoing series celebrating both the industrial worker and the ability to make do with what is at hand."\nFraser and her employees are interested in keeping The Gallery a local operation, showing works by mainly local artists. \n"I don\'t believe in the homogenization of art," said Fraser. "Each region has its own areas of artistic interest, and those areas should be preserved." \nAlthough many of the displayed artists have gained praise and acceptance across the country, as well as overseas, the artists continue to be true to The Gallery. \n"We represent art on a continuous basis, which makes it an 'art gallery' as opposed to simply a showing space," said Fraser. "Someone can always come in and view a Pozzatti or a Devitt, regardless of how far-reaching their work becomes."\nThe Gallery, located at 109 E. Sixth Street, is dedicated to educating people about the art and helping new buyers develop an eye for certain styles that are of interest. The Gallery markets work in all media, including oil, watercolor, sculpture, pottery, collage and the newly developed archival ink jet prints.