PAST EXHIBITIONS
PAST EXHIBITIONS
WARNER GALLERY
Flatland: Imaging the Midwest
October 20, 2007-Janaury 6, 2008
Flatland: Imaging the Midwest focuses on the way in which contemporary artists based in the Midwest incorporate and reflect the environment in which they are living and working. Featuring works in painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and video by local and regional artists, the exhibition will showcase a variety of takes on the idea of the physical and cultural landscape of the Midwest.
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Steve Foutch (South Bend, IN • drawing) Quite simply, Foutch's work is about the Midwest. Mid, middle, in between, neither here nor there, not one or the other, mediocre, middle of the road, center, heart, nucleus, intermediate…average. It's about place, space and childhood memories…. Having been raised in the rural outskirts of a three hundred-person town in the middle of the heartland, Foutch's work addresses the self-described, "vastness of my childhood that I cannot escape." As an adult, Foutch still finds himself blanketed with spectors of home, waking up in the middle of the night, sweating, from dreams of blazing sunsets and apocalyptic tornados. The work is about fascination with his childhood and the inability to return to where he's once from. |
Karen Perl (Chicago, IL • painting) Recalling the emotion of Fairfield Porter and the draughtsmanship of Edward Hopper, Perl works in a tradition based on observation in conjunction with discreet composition. Her en pleine aire paintings document the sleepy streets of the once rural, now-up-and-coming, village of Three Oaks, Michigan. In addition, Perl will have recent paintings of the Windy City on view. |
Janet Bloch (Chesterton, IN • painting) An Indiana artist transplanted from Chicago, Bloch is acutely attuned to the peculiarities and uniqueness of this region’s landscape. These areas have presented her with a new vocabulary of forms, both industrial and natural. In her paintings, man-made structures of power lines and buildings structures rise up from the landscape next to sand dunes, Blue Heron and Lake Michigan. Bloch creates a new narrative using symbols for showing unseen forces such as electrical power and genetics. Ultimately engineering utopian landscapes where industry, nature and fictitious species happily coexist. |
Steve Tomasula (South Bend, IN • text/video) Tomasula is an author and artist incorporating narrative forms of all kinds—from comic books, travelogues, journalism or code to Hong Kong action movies or science reports—Tomasula’s writing has been called a ‘reinvention of the novel,’ combining an ‘attention to society in the tradition of Orwell, attention to language in the tradition of Beckett, and the humor of a Coover or Pynchon.’ His writing often crosses visual, as well as written genres, drawing on science and the arts to take up themes of how we represent what we think we know, and how these representations shape our lives. |
Bill Woolf (Chicago, IL • painting) Woolf's work conveys a narrative or imagined scene, often using a flat perspective that allows many layers of an idea to be expressed at once in the Lake Shore Drive series, temporal and physical elements exist simultaneously. Using details recalling classic folk artists like Grandma Moses or Ralph Fasanella, his work fits into the larger tradition of memory painting. Other paintings in the show explore socio-cultural, historical, and environmental issues, such as the Civil War, various Balkan blood feud conflicts, and man's intruding on nature. |
John Bower (Bloomington, IN • photography) Hoosier photographer John Bower captures unexpected beauty in the landscape most passersby overlook. Bower has published four photographic essays of black-and-white imagery of historic Indiana buildings, the Hoosier countryside, sculpture in Southern Indiana, and agricultural relics in rural parts of the state. Bowers work is quiet and reflective, and representative of what we would find in most Indiana towns if we took the time to just look awhile. |
Duane Hanson: Real Life
June 2 - September 9, 2007
Warner Gallery and Community Gallery
*Please note that a special exhibition fee applies: $4 for SBRMA Members/$5 General Admission
Exhibition Sponsors - Garcia Family Foundation, AM General, Inn at Saint Mary's, Crowe Chizek, NIPSCO, Sam's Club (These corporation in order of the amount of giving). Individual support provided by: Ms. Eve Arnett, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Cahir, Ms. Bettie Dippo, Ms. June Edwards, Mr. Steve Fredman & Mrs. Barbara Black Fredman, Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. & Mrs. Joe Mancini, Dr. Robert Yount & Ms. Lynda Roth, Mr. & Mrs. Brad Toothaker, Ms. Barbara Warner.
Image on main page: House Painter, polyvinyl, 1995, “Collection of the Estate of Duane Hanson” Art © Estate of Duane Hanson/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
Self Portrait with Model, polyvinyl, 1979. “Collection of the Estate of Duane Hanson” Art © Estate of Duane Hanson/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. For media: Please call SBRMA for hi-res images. |
The South Bend Regional Museum of Art is pleased to announce Duane Hanson: Real Life on view from June 2 through September 9, 2007. Hanson used ordinary people as his main subject and became one of the most important American sculptors of the twentieth century. This traveling exhibition, organized by Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA, is the first comprehensive exhibition of his work in Indiana.
Upon encountering one of these extraordinarily realistic sculptures, the typical reaction of a museum visitor unfamiliar with Duane Hanson's work can be among the most interesting and amusing events one might witness in a museum or gallery. Hanson's sculptures could be often dismissed as people at rest--sitting or standing like any other visitor. Without close viewing, many visitors may never know that those people they passed were actually artworks.
Hanson (1925-1996) became famous for his lifelike sculptures of common people that were cast from live models, then painted in great detail and finished with hair, clothing, and accessories. Hanson's work is often mistakenly thought of as simply a form of extreme realism, but in fact it grew out of a highly developed social conscience.
Real Life features 15 sculptures, 43 of Hanson's photographic studies and two landscape paintings. The exhibition is organized with the cooperation of the artist's wife Wesla Hanson. The work is borrowed from the family's personal collection, and includes such classic works as Queenie II (1988), Cheerleader (1988), Housepainter (1988), and Man on Mower (1995).
Hanson was born in Alexandria, Minnesota, on January 17, 1925, in the agrarian culture of rural America. He recognized and admired ordinary people, such as laborers and the elderly, whom he believed had been marginalized by society. He received his BA from Macalester College in 1946 and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1951.
One solo exhibition in particular, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (1978), was influential in establishing Hanson as one of the leading sculptors of the late twentieth century. The exhibition unexpectedly attracted more than 297,000 visitors, thereby setting an attendance record for the museum.
Hanson creates sculptures with a message that portrayed victims of social misery, suicide, poverty, rape, murder, racism and violence. In 1967, he made his first casts from living models, which inspired him to create more realistic sculptures. In the same year Hanson created works that reflected the turbulent social time, including War, Gangland Victim and Motorcycle Accident. Gangland Victim and Motorcycle Accident were exhibited at the Bacardi Museum in Miami, which caused civic protests.
He began to focus more on individual people with a satirical approach, which can be observed in Race Riot and Football Players in 1968. In 1969, Hanson moved to New York City and created more than 25 sculptures over the next four years. His "sculptures of life" emulate emptiness, boredom, and aloneness of everyday life. Hanson's work depicts the clichés of American lower and middle class-life. He transformed the reality of life into the realism of art. We all come across Hanson's people in everyday life—at the post office or gas station, or while walking in town.
Museum Guard, mixed media, 1975. “Collection of the Estate of Duane Hanson” Art © Estate of Duane Hanson/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. For media: Please call SBRMA for hi-res images. |
"I'm not duplicating life, I'm making a statement about human values," Hanson said. "I show the empty-headedness, the fatigue, the aging, the frustration. These people can't keep up with the competition. They're left out, psychologically handicapped."
Hanson's family and friends were often models for his sculptures. His children Maja and Duane helped out with Children Playing Game (1979), Child with Puzzle (1978), Cheerleader (1988) and Surfer (1987). Museum Guard (1975) has the head of Wesla Hanson's uncle. In 1971, Hanson was diagnosed with cancer. In 1995, he had a relapse, and died on January 6, 1996 at the age of 70.
"I'm mostly interested in the human form as subject matter and means of expression for my sculpture. What can generate more interest, fascination, beauty, ugliness, joy, shock or contempt than a human being? Most of my time involves concentrating on the sculpting aspect. Casting, repairing, assembling, painting, correcting it until it pleases me. That takes some doing as I'm rarely satisfied."
--Duane Hanson, Nov. 26, 1981
Opening Receptions
In connection with the exhibition, the museum will have a special Sneak Peek Reception on Thursday, May 31, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. open for SBRMA members. A general public Opening Reception is June 1, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m., during Meet Me on the Island.
Educational Programming for Duane Hanson
The museum’s Community Gallery will feature an Education Resource Center. The center will be available to the public and will include related books and videos for their use as well as hands-on activities and self-guided tours.
On the first and third Friday of the months during the exhibition, Real Life Friday will be offered to community groups involved in youth programming. The children will have a chance to learn more about Duane Hanson’s working methods by creating their own “Real Life” works of art in sculpture. Organizations interested in attending should call Jessi Lentych Loyd, curator of education, at (574) 235-9102 to R.S.V.P.
Local sculptor Andrew Wilson Smith will lead the SBRMA’s annual Summer Teen Project. Smith will lead a group of teens using realist sculpture and public monuments as the foundation for designing maquettes of civic sculptures that will be displayed publicly at Meet Me on the Island on August 24 and then in downtown South Bend.
Biennial 24
March 3 - May 13, 2007
Now in its 24th incarnation, the South Bend Regional Museum of Art’s all media Biennial 24 presents a diverse look into contemporary artwork made by artists living in the Midwest. Open to artists residing in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin, this exhibition is an up-to-date dialogue of art happening in our own backyard. From hundreds of submitting artists, only a dozen will be selected by jurors Meg Sheehy and Myra Casis, owners/directors of ZG Gallery, Chicago, IL . The pool of exhibiting artists is deliberately limited to allow for the showing of a greater body of work by each artist.
The following artists were selected by Sheehy and Casis from a pool of 176 submitting artists:
The museum uses this pool of artists to acquire new works into its permanent collection with $1,500 in purchase awards and $1,50o in merit awards sponsored by the museum’s Art League.
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Chris Kahler |
 Scott Stulen |
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 Catherine Forster |
Timothy Ripley |
Micheal Banning |
Dawn Roe |
Systematic
Sponsored by KeyBank
October 21, 2006 – January 7, 2007
system: 1 : a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole a (1) : a group of interacting bodies under the influence of related forces (2) : an assemblage of substances that is in or tends to equilibrium
2 : an organized set of doctrines, ideas, or principles usually intended to explain the arrangement or working of a systematic whole
3 a : an organized or established procedure > b : a manner of classifying, symbolizing, or schematizing
4 : harmonious arrangement or pattern
As suggested by the above definition, a system is a logical or prescribed ordering of information, tasks, or components. The artists in Systematic make work that deals with systems and process through their conceptual content and execution.
Vera Scekic (IL) fabricates her installations from poured paint marks that involve the taking apart and reassembly of the system of painting by removing the marks from the canvas and using them in an installation based fashion. Thom McGovern (KY) takes the idea of systems as his central issue, forming exquisitely crafted sculptures and installations that reflect a wonderment at the interconnectedness of our seemingly divergent world. Miranda Maher (NY) generates drawings of a taxonomic nature based on bird wingspans, plumage patterns, and flight patterns. Dean Randazzo’s (IL) seemingly abstract photos utilize slow shutter speeds to document the paths and traces of ephemeral insects as they are drawn to a light source. Mark Murphy (IL) painstakingly hand cuts small abstract collages from soda boxes, infusing the puzzle-like surfaces with bits of barely recognizable logos and design. Lisa Lee Peterson (IN) explores issues of family and identity through photographic woven wall hangings.
Vera Scekic |
Dean Randazzo |
Mark Murphy |
ThomMcGovern |
Miranda Maher |
 Lisa Lee Peterson |
Perform/Install
July 15 - September 24, 2006
Liz Miller | Jody Boyer & Russ Nordman |
Performance orients itself towards the implication and inclusion of the audience. Whether improvisational music, spoken word, or a one act play, performative works posit a temporal exchange between artist and audience. The unfolding of this exchange creates a dialogue that is greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly, installation works transform space and situate us not as viewers looking at a work from the outside, but rather as participants navigating through the work's center. In both cases the piece is not complete without the inclusion and participation of the viewer. Perform/Install embraces the active role of the viewer by fusing a series of performance based events with installations by Liz Miller and artist team Jody Boyer and Russ Nordman. For both the performances and installations, the viewer is the final key element, the bridge that closes the gap between just looking at and plunging in.
The organizer of Perform/Install, SBRMA curator Jason Lahr, states, "Ideally, we can have the experience that we want with a work of art. We can enter that point where the world falls away and we find ourselves immersed in the world of a photograph, painting, or sculpture. Or we have that moment where we're transported to the potter's wheel or easel and see the work through the eyes of the artist. Too often though, our ability to enter into an experience with a painting, photograph, or sculpture is limited. We're distracted by the chaos of our lives or the unfamiliarity of an image or process. In that moment, the distance between our looking and what we're looking at becomes palpable. The thread of the dialogue is lost. In Perform/Install, the grouping of performance and installation seeks to reduce our disconnectedness as viewers by situating us at the core of the work's formation."
The large-scale installation work of artist Liz Miller is constrained by neither space nor lack of the imagination. Miller's vividly drawn, painted, and collaged artworks expand like tentacles across the length of the viewing space, climbing and creeping across the walls and ceiling. A bright array of nontraditional art materials such as foam and felt give depth to planar surfaces as she emphasizes the ambiguous play between structure and chaos. For Miller, "Bold, synthetic color speaks to our appetite for sensory overload, exploring the territory between that which is seductive and that which is sickening. In contrast to the hard, smooth surfaces of the computer monitor and television screen, my work offers a tactile map of contemporary life through the materials employed."
Paramnesia represents a large-scale collaboration by interdisciplinary artists Jody Boyer and Russ Nordman. Like amnesia, paramnesia is a real medical condition, where the afflicted confuse reverie with reality and remain unable to distinguish between what exists and what is imagined. But unlike amnesia, people who experience paramnesia remember their experiences, conflating fact and fantasy until the two become immutably intertwined. Using a model train mounted with a miniature video camera, Boyer and Nordman guide their audience through a landscape of miniature forests and figurines. Across the gallery, live footage of the mounted camera flickers in the dimly lit gallery. A chair, an antique iron bed and dresser are suspended askew from the gallery ceiling. Along the gallery walls, fleeting film footage culled from old home movies, grainy images reminiscent of a bygone era and the nostalgia of simpler times. Together, the pieces evoke an eerie recollection of dreams and occurrences that the viewer isn't quite sure to happened to him, or not.
Scholastic Art Awards
January 28 - February 18, 2006
The SBRMA has played host to the Scholastic Art Awards for 21 years. Works on view are representative of students in grades 7 through 12 from 18 surrounding counties in Indiana and Michigan. Over the years thousands of junior high and high school students have exhibited and toured works on view in this exhibition. Recognition of work is given in the form of an awards ceremony acknowledging gold keys, silver achievement keys, and Certificates of Merit. Award-winning work from these regional competitions will be sent to New York City for the national portion of the competition to be scrutinized by panels of distinguished artists and educators.
The Scholastic Art Awards is organized by
area educators with gallery space courtesy of the South Bend Regional
Museum of Art. The museum is a proud sponsor of this exhibition
and pleased to be the venue for the works on display by these
budding artists. In fact, the SBRMA enjoys its greatest jump in
attendance during this exhibition by students, teachers, parents,
and people who enthusiastically enjoy the quality work produced
by these young adults. Thousands visit the museum during the exhibition's
short three-week display.
Beyond Tomorrow!
October 15, 2005 - January 8, 2006
In Beyond Tomorrow! eight artists
capture the speculative reality of science fiction, on view at
the South Bend Regional Museum of Art. Film, photography, oil
painting, digital prints, sculpture and costuming are the tricks
of the trade in this bunch, and with each artist comes a different
spin on what the future holds for the lowly humanoid. Beyond
Tomorrow! features art work by: Nelson Henricks, Satre
Stuelke, Deena des Rioux, Justin Miller, Brett Borland, Todd Davis,
John Roth, and Nate Larson.
The relationship between science fiction
and our world is, of course, reciprocal. The 20th and 21st centuries
have seen seemingly impossible ideas and technology move from
the domain of science fiction to the realm of common, everyday
use. Computers, cell phones, the internet, Global Positioning
Systems, microwave ovens, and countless other business and household
devices all have roots in science fiction as fantastic props and
machines. Increasingly, the world of tomorrow is becoming the
world of today.
The artists in Beyond Tomorrow! use the visual and thematic language of science fiction to make work that ranges from the pseudo-In Search Of UFO photographs of Nate Larson, to the strange bio-mechanical paintings of Justin Miller, to the comically bizarre sculptures of John Roth. Beyond Tomorrow! highlights a generation of artists who have been immersed in a culture ripe with science fiction and who have seen the impossibilities of the past and promise of the future morph into the realities of the present.
This exhibtion is sponsored by The Inn at Saint Mary's and the South Bend Art Center Foundation.
Nate Larson |
Nelson Henricks |
Deena des Rioux |
Biennial 23
June 3 - September 11, 2005
Now in its 23rd incarnation, the South Bend Regional Museum of Art's all media Biennial 23 presents a diverse look into contemporary artwork made by artists living in the Midwest. Open to artists residing in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin, this exhibition is an up-to-date dialogue of art happening in our own backyard. From 118 submitting artists, only 14 were selected by juror Aron Packer of Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago, IL. The pool of exhibiting artists is deliberately limited to allow for the showing of a greater body of work by each artist.
Cynthia Greig |
Jim Raymo |
Lisa Leppa |
Norbert Marsalek |
Caroline Gore |
David John
Simcik |
Valerie Taglieri |
Will Pergl |
Renee Robbins |
Richard Barlow |
Christopher
Meerdo |
Flora
March 5 - May 8, 2005
The subject of "flora" has long
been a popular mainstay as artistic object and as artistic inspiration.
Like botanists, artists have long obsessed over the bountiful
beauty, mysterious ways and powerful iconography of plant life.
See how contemporary artists from the Midwest and beyond employ
the age-old subject in current work on display in Flora.
The artists in Flora integrate botanical images and themes in a myriad of ways. From the kaleidoscopic installations of Scott Stulen to the luscious Spanish and Islamic tile derived paintings of Laurie Riccadona, this exhibition parallels the diversity, complexity, and beauty of plant life that surrounds us. In Flora, we come to realize that Nature is no longer a given, but rather a precious space that we set aside for ourselves.
 Mary Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand |
 Lauren Was |
Jason Lahr, SBRMA curator and curator of
Flora, states :
"Implicit in our understanding of nature is the projection
of our consciousness into the world. Our thoughts about nature
tend to gravitate towards the romantic--those raw, untouched,
unspoiled spaces that seem to exist beyond our influence; a sanctuary
from society and culture. We tend to view nature as a given; an
experience that we pass into and out of, but that continues regardless.
Those raw spaces of the world are diminishing, yet we take solace in a park or garden, visit national forests, and surround ourselves with houseplants in an effort to stave off our hectic lives and reconnect with our environment. Ours is a symbiotic relationship with the plant life around us. This symbiosis extends beyond the physical nourishment of food and oxygen and into the way that plants order our lives (tending the garden, mowing the lawn) and enrich our experiences (a wedding bouquet, a funeral wreath)." (2005)
Ten regional and national artists were invited
to display their works in Flora:
Scott Stulen (Rochester, MN) - installation
Mary Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand (Bowling Green, OH) - "The
Great Race" (video)
Phil Petrie (South Bend, IN)- painting
Lauren Was (Knoxville, TN) - installation
Barbara Campbell (Greensboro, NC) - drawing
Laurie Riccadonna (Jersey City, NJ)- painting
Molly Briggs (Chicago, IL)- painting
Karen Savage (Chicago, IL) - photograms
Dolores Quint (Crown Point, IN) - painted Dutch hex signs
Preserving Place: Reflections of Indiana
October 9 - January 16, 2005
Is there still wilderness in Indiana? Can you name an untouched natural area in the state? How would you describe your relationship with the natural world?
The Nature Conservancy and the Indianapolis Museum of Art challenged Indiana's artists to create images using the medium of photography of natural beauty and to document wild. This exhibition features 43 photographs created by 20 artists from around the state.
 Mike Mettler |
Preserving Place: Reflections of Indiana was organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art-Columbus Gallery, and The Nature Conservancy of Indiana. The exhibition was made possible by a generous grant from the Cinergy Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Central Indiana Community Foundation, the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
The Nature Conservancy's mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Southern Graphics Council: Traveling
Print Exhibition
October 9 - January 16, 2005
With thousands of members located across the country, the Southern Graphics Council (SGC) is the largest printmaking organization in the United States.
 Brent Bond |
 Connie Wolfe |
 David Morrish |
This travelling exhibition is juried from SGC member submissions and contains 39 artists each presenting a single work. An excellent snapshot of contemporary printmaking, the exhibition is comprised of works on paper in a variety of media; intaglio, relief, lithography, serigraphy and the majority that are mixture of mediums.
The juror for the exhibition was Lloyd Menard. Menard has taught at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion for over thirty years. He has exhibited extensively, is represented in over 450 collections and has conducted workshops both nationally and internationally.
Menard states "it is my hope that exhibitions
such as this will encourage dialogue that goes beyond our own
community of printmakers to foster new alliances and possibilities
for collaborations that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries."
Materials Regional
June 5 - September 12, 2004
 Nathan Dube |
Diane Cooper |
Yarn and feminine hygiene products, sterling silver and Pyrex tubing, lipstick and copper. No, these are not things one might find in a woman's purse, they comprise artwork on display in Materials Regional. (Materials Regional is the evolution of the museum's biennial exhibition Craft Work Regional held in 2001). This exhibition focuses on the use of different materials to create visual objects. Two- and three- dimensional media including but not limited to ceramic, glass, wood, fiber, metals, jewelry, wearable art, enamels, plastic, and paper are eligible. The pool of exhibiting artists was drawn from an open call for entries from an eight-state region: Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
 Melissa Parrot |
 Jennifer Halvorson |
 Sherry Sims |
Water World
March 6 - May 23, 2004
Water is ubiquitous.
Turn on a faucet. Brush your teeth. Take a drink. Go to the bathroom. Flush the toilet. Take a shower. Put on clean clothes. Have a cup of coffee and a glass of juice. Do the dishes. Take dinner out of the freezer. Adjust the air conditioner. Set the sprinkler system. Take the ferry to work. Sit by a fountain at lunch. Look out the window at a river. Run home in the rain. Slip on the ice. Put ice on your knee.
Our days are full of water.
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Water is so commonplace that we tend not to think about it. Only during a drought or a natural disaster does one become conscious of a water shortage. We forget the universal importance of water for sustaining all forms of life and that organic process can take place only in a watery medium.
Our lives are full of water.
Man is highly dependent upon water. Our bodies use it as a lubricant, a shield from injury, a temperature regulator and to build and nourish tissue. In addition to human consumption and domestic use, we use water for industry, removal of waste, recreation, transportation, power and agriculture.
Our world is full of water.
South Bend is within spitting distance of one third of the surface fresh water resources of the world, the Great Lakes. North America has more lakes than any other continent and the Great Lakes are the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. In the Midwest, we are not confronted with the political and social issues surrounding water that engage most of the world.
Water World will examine how artists think about and use water as an element in their work.
Featured artists:
Luciana Abate, Jeff Aeling, Barry Anderson, Cambid Choy, Vernon
Fisher, Kiko Hara, Steve Hough, Richard Hull, Peggy Macnamara,
Nate Parsons, Jill Pope, Janis Pozzi-Johnson, Erin Riley, Ramiro
Rodriguez, Charlotte Rollman, Natasha Spencer, Erik Stotik, Eugene
Von Bruenchenhein, Margaret Wharton,
Some of the works in this exhibition have been loaned courtesy of the following Chicago galleries: Jean Albino Gallery, Inc., Aaron Packer Gallery, Perimeter Gallery, Carrie Seacrist Gallery, ZG Gallery and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Inc. We are grateful for their assistance and support.
ART LEAGUE GALLERY
Anthony Pontius: The Rugged Terrain
October 13-December 2, 2007
Like a long list of artists centuries before his time, Anthony Pontius is a narrative painter in the most common sense, but the kind of the 21st century. See Anthony Pontius: The Rugged Terrain on view in the Art League Gallery, October 13 – December 2, 2007.
Delving into the quirky realm of surrealism as well, Anthony’s current work explores the human connection to history by using past and present techniques of painting and written histories. His paintings are an invention of his own nostalgic experiences and narratives. He states, “I examine imagery, stories and concepts from both the past and present and place them in a shared setting. The established conflicts and connections found in this union enable an image that provides accessibility for many audiences. I employ traditional and contemporary practices of painting and mix these approaches to form new arrangements. I may use classical clarity to represent and to define a specific part of a story, and at the same time use the ambiguity of abstraction to complete or to destroy the formation of the work. From this, new narratives are presented. They are stories that are familiar yet their meaning has not been cultivated. This combination of specific imagery with less comprehensive moments creates an accommodating proclamation. It is one that enables a space for viewers to share the anxiety, and beauty of the human involvement with its own identity.”
Born in Indiana, Anthony holds a MFA degree in Painting from the University of Kansas and a BFA in Painting & Printmaking from The Herron School of Art. Anthony. He has taught extensively at the Des Moines Art Center, the University of Kansas, The Lawrence Arts Center and The Herron School of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited at many galleries, universities and venues internationally.
Cameron Van Dyke: Furniture Chef
June 2 - September 16, 2007
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Furniture Chef is an interactive exhibition of furniture sculptures by Cameron Van Dyke. Unlike most art exhibitions, the public is welcome to touch and explore the works with the eye and the body. The pieces are designed for indoor or outdoor use and are made of durable materials such as steel, fiberglass, wood, or concrete. In his work Cameron Van Dyke combines carefully articulated lines with gracefully bending and twisting planes. The resulting shapes are witty and refined, playful and stoic, and redefine our expectations of furniture. Visit Van Dykes creations on view at the SBRMA from June 2 through September 16 in the Art League Gallery.
Please join the SBRMA on June 1, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. for a very artful evening which includes an Opening Reception for Furniture Chef and Duane Hanson: Real Life, in conjunction with the kick-off of Meet Me on the Island.
Artist Statement for Cameron Van Dyke
“I make functional sculpture that enlivens the imagination through strong clean lines, proportional volumes, and twisting planes. I strive to make work that both children and adults will love – work that functions on many levels with a strong graphic quality. The work is functional and meant to be explored by sitting, leaning, and relaxing.
I have been making things since I was a small child. My parents provided a lot of opportunity to be creative out in the garage and in the basement, never stopping me with ‘all my ideas.’ My ideas have turned into designs and over the years I have sought out different materials and techniques so that I could make the things that I was designing. Techniques in steel, fiberglass, wood, or concrete have now become the ingredients I work with. They are not the focus of my work, but only the means to an end.
My end objective is to create forms with beautiful lines and shapes and to create expressive joy filled sculptures that help revive that childlike exploration of the world around us.”
Artist Bio
Van Dyke was born in Washington DC in 1968. He started building things from a very early age out in the garage. He started college studying engineering, but found he wanted a more hands-on career, subsequently he transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology completing a BFA in furniture design (1993). Van Dyke went on to complete an apprenticeship with master furniture-maker John Bailey in Lima, NY, after which he moved to Grand Rapids in 1994 and worked for a custom furniture manufacturer until 1996. Van Dyke has taught his trade as an adjunct professor of functional art at Kendall College of Art & Design and has completed hundreds of commissioned furniture and interior pieces, shown in galleries around the country.
Artist Bio
Van Dyke was born in Washington DC in 1968. He started building things from a very early age out in the garage. He started college studying engineering, but found he wanted a more hands-on career, subsequently he transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology completing a BFA in furniture design (1993). Van Dyke went on to complete an apprenticeship with master furniture-maker John Bailey in Lima, NY, after which he moved to Grand Rapids in 1994 and worked for a custom furniture manufacturer until 1996. Van Dyke has taught his trade as an adjunct professor of functional art at Kendall College of Art & Design and has completed hundreds of commissioned furniture and interior pieces, shown in galleries around the country.
Nicholas Sistler: Deep Focus
October 14 – December 3, 2006
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While the gouache paintings of Nicholas Sistler are itsy-bitsy, just a few square inches, they are no less impressive than a large-scale mural. Sistler’s pieces are intimate and ironic, drawing the viewer in for a closer look. With work the size of half-a-sheet of paper, Sistler is interested in the irony of deep space and monumental scale within a minute format. Look closely, and you’ll see Nicholas Sistler: Deep Focus on exhibition October 14 – December 3, 2006 in the Art League Gallery.
Sistler received a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1980. Solo and group exhibitions include the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Illinois State Museum, Rockford Art Museum and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Grants and awards include several Illinois Arts Council awards. Sistler's work is included in the permanent collections of the Rockford Art Museum, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art (Northwestern University, Evanston) and Benedictine University (Illinois).
Harry Ahn & Morgan Craig
June 17 - September 10, 2006
Harry Ahn | Morgan Craig |
Forgotten places and forgotten people are highlighted in this two-person painting exhibition featuring the work of Harry Ahn and Morgan Craig, on view in the Art League Gallery at the SBRMA, June 17 - September 10, 2006.
The highly realistic portraits of Harry Ahn are exquisite and notable. A regular on the juried art circuit, Ahn frequently wins "Best of Show." Ahn's portraits often put us face-to-face with people that are on the fringe of society: the homeless and the elderly. His approach is astutely painterly and adds a sense of nobility and beauty that should be ascribed to every human being struggling to stay afloat in a selectively harsh world.
About his work, Ahn states, "A homeless wanderer on the street is an endless subject from an artistic point of view. Art can suddenly transform this unfortunate vagabond into a beautiful piece of work when I paint him. I was that same homeless wanderer during the desolation of my country following the Korean War. American U.N. soldiers had brought me over to South Korea from North Korea as a refugee during the Korean Was. I have since derived great pleasure from making a 'nobody' into 'somebody,' a nothing into something." Ahn attended art school in Seoul, later finishing up in Canada.
Morgan Craig works with the narrative of urban landscapes. Abandoned places, filled with unstable structures and likely toxic zones. These sharply rendered stills of deserted monoliths give the viewer a unique zoom view of some of the most desolate places in the American landscape: closed manufacturing plants.
Craig received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and a teaching certificate from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and a Masters of Fine Arts in painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Craig currently teaches art history and technique to middle school students in Philadelphia and participates in many exhibitions nationwide.
Tock Tick II: Dietrich Wegner March 18 - June 4, 2006
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Mushrooms, splashes, holes and lumps. Oh my! The sculptural work of Dietrich Wegner is humorous, a bizarre wonderment, and monstrous (much like humanity itself). The oversized droplets of fluids the size of a person and atomic mushroom clouds shrunk down and constructed into a child's treehouse are both ominous and playful at the same time. See this playhouse of the sublime at the SBRMA, on exhibition March 18 - June 4, 2006.
In his artist statement, Wegner states: "Events in recent years have caused me to look outward to the actions of our country. I find myself searching for images that articulate the confusion between the ideals, intentions, and actions of our nation, as well as a play between the realities of violence versus the commercial presentation of violence. My current work mixes up comfort with fear, while exploring whether we can really find safety through violence."
Wegner is a resident of Springfield, OH,
and a MFA graduate from the University of Ohio. A young, up-and-coming
sculptor, Wegner exhibits widely around the United States.
Martina Nehrling: Paintings
December 17, 2005 - March 5, 2006
With the accumulation of hundreds of staccato brushstrokes, Martina Nehrling creates evolving, abstract compositions that investigate the complexities of daily life. Through the use of simple colors, the paintings engage the eye and reveal patterns of light and dark, rhythm and balance. Using the semblance of simple and deliberate brushstrokes, repeated thousands of times, almost all nearly alike except for variations caused by drips and color, results in a series of paintings that exude vibrancy and life. Martina Nehrling: Paintings will be on view December 17, 2005 through March 5, 2006 at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
In her artist statement, Martina says, "I take notes with separate brushstrokes of color creating an index that may operate as a celebration of daily life or rebellion against it. I use simple brushstrokes to be direct, but color in order to engage and explore its imprecise language. I revel in color, this effusive element that is suspiciously downplayed as a rule. I notice how the eye tracks the pattern of light and dark and can be interrupted by particular color relationships or a shift in scale. There is also a significant auditory aspect to my painting process as I consider rhythm and enjoy visual rhyming in my paintings. I listen to the compositions as they evolve, seeking to create moments of concord and discord. In some of my paintings multi-colored paint marks are grouped in vertical bands or layered in horizontal stacks, often creating patterns akin to lists, sentences, or phrases."
Martina Nehrling has a M.F.A. from the University
of Chicago and is represented by Zg Gallery, Chicago.
A Retrospective of Portraiture by Jean Dibble October 15 - December 4, 2006
Professor Jean Dibble works with painting
and digital printmaking. In this exhibition, the portraits presented
are actually photogravure prints. The process begins with paintings
in oil on wood that are then scanned into the computer and layered
with works by other artists, also scanned into the computer, resulting
in A Retrospective of Portraiture at the South Bend Regional
Museum of Art.
The production of a photogravure consists of three steps: taking the picture, or in this case creating a digital print; producing a printing plate of the image; and printing the image on paper. So in essence, these works, using the most cutting edge digital technology, are also the result of a century old technique of photo printing.
In speaking about this exhibition Prof. Dibble said, "Within these particular pieces, our remembered cultural past is entangled with the present. A challenge posed for the viewer by integrating familiar symbols, or the artwork of a familiar artist with the portrait of an unfamiliar person. This is done to make visible the invisible cultural structure: the influence of past traditions on our present. The revelation of this structure is intended to create a visual framework for our fractured, multi-layered present."
Steven Matthew Brown: New Work
June 18 - September 11, 2005
Steven Matthew Brown's exhibition, New Work, is an onsite installation in the Art League Gallery of the SBRMA consisting of forms made by stacking many thousands of small hand made books and a tangled wall element made from the scraps. The hand made books and wall element are made from 20th Century world atlases. Implicit in this new work is the theme of containment. From small portable vessels, to being encapsulated by a universe, Brown uses found objects to translate these concepts into a visual format. Brown is unusual in that he does not stick to one medium in his work. He is an artist proficient in several media, including sculpture, painting and drawing. Brown states. "My aim is to make installation and sculpture as part of an exploration into that spatial perception and its influence on our lives." Steven Matthew Brown currently resides in Rochester Hills, MI. He is a young emerging artist and recent B.F.A. recipient from The College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI.
Eric Landes & Gary Ciadella
March 19 - June 5, 2005
Location, location, location. This common saying is more than a real estate mantra, but also a signifier of human nature, presence and existence. See how two very different Midwest photographers, Gary Ciadella and Eric Landes, use location, space, and site selection in their work at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
Landes' work references elements of landscape that are neither strictly human or nature, but are natural areas defined by human occupancy. They are spaces negotiated by human presence - parking lots, side yards, and street-side easements - but quickly neglected and easily ignored. Photographed at night, street lights and porch lamps serve as spotlights in these brightly colored compositions. Landes states, "It is my intention to use the scale of these pieces (30"X45") to confront the viewer and through this confrontation make them aware of the beauty and lyrical potential of these spaces." Currently a professor of fine art at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Landes attended Indiana University in Bloomington for his MFA.
Also working largely with architecture as
subject matter in his B & W photography, Cialdella's imagery
is based upon a personal connection to the subject as well as
the self-contained history of the subject. He has a particular
interest in the "social fabric of America manifested on the
contemporary landscape." Although his works possess a certain
amount of whimsy, his photographs of urban sprawl and unused industrial
sites depict a certain desperation and sense of loss. The co-owner
of Carr Cialdella Photography, Gary Cialdella attended Western
Michigan University for his BS and MA, and the University of Notre
Dame for his MFA.
Kurt Webb: A News Millennium: A Year
in Pictures
December 18, 2004 - March 6, 2005
Large clay pictorial carved jars and woodblock prints comprise Kurt Webb's artistic creations. Trained as a visual artist and storyteller, Webb's works each tell a story in a visual way. His body of ceramic jars, laboriously carved and fired in a wood kiln, unfurl their stories as the viewer moves around the form. His woodcut prints, started on January 1, 2001 and ending on September 11, 2001, are part of A News Millennium: A Year in Pictures series. This series was an effort to find on a daily basis unusual international news story and transform that written story into a purely visual woodcut print. This exhibition will be populated with dynamic and powerful images each telling tales about the world around us.
Kurt Webb has BFA and BS degrees from Illinois
State University, Normal, IL. He received a Masters of Education
from East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee
and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Illinois State
University, Normal, IL.
Eun Sook Lee: Death of Snow White
October 9 - December 12, 2004
The Brothers Grimm created the fairy tale Little Snow-White in 1812. Walt Disney remade her in the 1937 animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Similar tales of fantasy about beauty, purity, and virtue have appeared in cultures around the world.
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Eun Sook Lee's multimedia installation investigates
Snow White in her contemporary state of being. As a fantasy icon,
Snow White has become an unobtainable and unhealthy role model.
Lee presents her critique of this icon by committing the "Murder
of Snow White." A thought provoking exhibition that is a
times both humorous and deadly serious, Lee offers astute observations
on current popular culture and the impact of film and theatrical
art forms on our collective psyche and the tales we use to construct
our civilization.
Lee received her BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
Tennessee and her MFA from the University of Notre Dame, Notre
Dame, Indiana. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art
at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.
Avanti: A Postindustrial Ghost Story
June 5 - September 12, 2004
Avanti: A Postindustrial Ghost Story focuses on the working process and visual documentation
of the creation and staging of a theatrical production of the
same title. Written by Obie-award winning playwright Jessica Chalmers,
and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the
Rockefeller Foundation and the City of South Bend. This new multi-media
performance tells the story of the generations: old ghosts that
haunt the Studebaker factory and how they are ultimately freed
from their past lives by a demolition team. Set in current-day
South Bend, the play centers on the 1963 plant closings and examines
the lasting impact it had on our community. A technologically
cutting-edge production that will feature live actors set against
a backdrop of archival video, Avanti: A Postindustrial Ghost
Story will be staged in the Deluxe Sheet Metal factory, an
old factory space similar to those that populate the Studebaker
corridor today.
Co-produced by the University of Notre Dame
and The Builders Association, an internationally renowned avant-garde
theater company in New York City, Avanti: A Postindustrial
Ghost Story will premiere in South Bend on September 24, 2004
and run through October 3, 2004. For more information on the theater
production Avanti: A Postindustrial Ghost Story please
visit www.nd.edu/~avanti.
Michael Nakoneczny
March 6 - May 16, 2004
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While viewing Michael Nakoneczny's paintings, we are privy to an ongoing interior dialogue in the artist's mind that is at times, agitated and nervous and at times, calm and relaxed at other times. His paintings are a constant examination of his life, the viewer follows along in his paintings as he goes to the studio, walks the dog, eats some food, paints, takes a bath, paints some more, has a smoke, meets friends, goes to sleep. These works are crammed with textured marks and interwoven with multiple layers that surround central iconic figures. They fluctuate between the gentle hand required to pet an animal and the powerful hand required to unscrew a new jar of pickles.
Michael Nakoneczny has lived in Chicago for over twenty years. He is currently teaching painting at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Alaska. Michael has received numerous awards including an Illinois Art Council Fellowship and an Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Fellowship. He received a BFA from Cleveland State University and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati.
Michael Nakoneczny is supported by a grant
from the Alaska State
Council on the Arts. This exhibition is courtesy of Zolla/Lieberman
Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL.
Keer Tanchak 
Rod Northcutt 
