A Look at Two University Gallery Exhibits

I've been a part of two wonderful exhibits this October in both the University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery on Gay Street, Knoxville, TN, and Tipton Gallery, the downtown gallery of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. (The university is also home to Slocumb Gallery, and the Carroll Reece Museum). 

Ossuary 

October 4-26, 2013 UT Downtown Gallery

ABOUT THE CURRENT EXHIBITION

(information copied from UT gallery page)

Three hundred artists have contributed to this Ossuary. Their work, in many media, includes single bones, clusters of bones, and art works inspired by, using, or playing with the idea of bones. These bones are political statements and personal elegies, memorials to individuals and statements about mortality. They represent connections to our ancestors and/or to our descendants. Some works are serious and some use bones in a completely playful manner.

Gallery manager Mike Berry checking on last minute details

Ossuary was developed in response to the repositories of bones that have accured in countries like Cambodia and Rwanda, but Ossuary is not a project about those traumas. Rather, Ossuary offers a poignant counter-image to mass violence. It is a project about the hope that art brings.

Images and statements for all the bone works from this iteration can be found online at  www.ossuaries.net

Ossuary is a cummulative traveling project. It began in Madison, Wisconsin. Artists interested in contributing bones to future exhibitions should write to ossuaries@gmail.com.

This relational project was initiated and developed by the artist Laurie Beth Clark. Clark, who is a Professor in the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin, has shown work in galleries, museums, theatres, and public spaces in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Extensive documentation of prior projects can be found at www.lbclark.net 

Ossuary features over 300 works from artists around the world. Many contributions come from Knoxville-area artists.

 

My piece, center

Landfill Consumption Legacy: 8.5” x 8.5” x 15” -  2013

Charcoal on paper, polymer clay “bones”, glass bottles,  plexiglass box, trash and detritus

~

The remains of human life are much more than a mere collection of bones, ash, or preserved body. It is rather an amassed collection of mostly buried remains of consumption over a lifetime that seems to grow steadily over time for each individual in the developed world. Despite attempts at recycling, the world of just a generation of two ago was much more adept at this skill, by simply using thrift as guide. My example of a rather physical manifestation of human extreme over-consumption might end up in small jars, but the history of their activity and behavior commands much more space.

~

Envisioned Landscapes 

September 30-October 25, 2013, Tipton Gallery, 126 Spring St. Johnson City, TN

visitors checking out "One Epoch in the Life of a Garden Goddess"

"One Epoch in the Life of a Garden Goddess"ceramic, wood, glass, hand built portable houses, plant material

Suzanne Stryk talks about her work (7 pieces behind on wall)

Mary Bates Nuebauer talks about her 3D work in case

Diane Fox talks about her photography

My "One Epoch" piece on pedestal, Adriane Little's work on wall and video screen

Ceramic work by Allisone Luce

Adriane Little's bulb and transparency wall shadow projection

my "Her Lust Lay Heavily Upon Them" right, on pedestal

"Her Lust Lay Heavily Upon Them" ceramic, wood, fake grass and plant material

artists Suzanne Stryk (VA), Theresa Markiw (TN), Denise Stewart-Sanabria (TN), Mary Bates Nuebauer (AZ),Diane Fox (TN), not sure, Mary Barton Nees (TN), and ETSU's Womans Studies Program Director, Dr. Phyllis Thompson 

 

Event Description  (text info from Slocumb Gallery website)          The landscape as a genre is one of the most popular subject matters in the history of art. From the realists to impressionists, even the surrealists, the landscape as a changing muse has inspired artists for centuries.  The landscape as an art concept has further evolved in contemporary art, at times veering away from the romanticized picturesque images of nature toward other planes, like earth art, installations, and multimedia images.  Women’s deeper understanding of birth origins, connections of the womb and Mother Earth are perspectives that imbue art with distinct terrain, a geography embodied differently from the dominant male-dominated landscape.      Opening September 30, 2013, and running through October 25, 2013, “Envisioned Landscape: A Group Exhibition” explores the landscape from the female point of view.  An Opening Reception, with artists’ talk, is scheduled for First Friday, October 4, 2013, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with guest of honor Dr. Wilsie Bishop.  Location is the Tipton Gallery, 126 Spring Street, Johnson City, Tenn.  The exhibit is co-curated by Karlota Contreras-Koterbay, Slocumb Galleries director and intern Michael Hale.

           “Envisioned Landscape: A Group Exhibition” features work that manipulates the landscape and embeds it with a more complex content.  The co-curators are interested in exploring the artists’  ‘created’ and ‘imagined’ terrain as opposed to its traditional representation of scenery as it is. Some of the envisioned landscape presents its subject as apocalyptic or mystical and even psychedelic, revealing the artists’ exploration of media and their efforts to push the boundaries of what is considered ‘landscape’.
            The participating artists are: Diane Fox (Tenn.),Megan Levacy (Ga.), Adriane Little (Mich.), Allison Luce (N. Carolina), Theresa Markiw(Tenn.), Mary Nees (Tenn.), Mary Bates Nuebauer (Ariz.), Esther Randall (Ken.), Suzanne Stryk (Va.), and Denise Stewart-Sanabria (Tenn.). Sculptor Mary Bates Neubauer will present a lecture at the Art Annex on October 3, Thursday at 11:30 a.m.
            The “Envisioned Landscape: A Group Exhibition” is sponsored by Department of Art and Design, Urban Redevelopment Alliance, Women’s Studies Program, and Women’s Resource Center.  For more information, contact Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at 423-483-3179 or the Women’s Resource Center at 423-439-5772.  The Tipton Gallery is open on First Friday receptions from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. and by appointment. The exhibit and lectures are free and open to the public.