WARNER GALLERY

Made In America: Contemporary & Historical works from the Permanent Collection
March 8 – May 11, 2008 

For the first time ever, the SBRMA is filling its galleries with the largest and most comprehenive exhibtion of its permanent collections. On view in both the Warner and Carmichael Galleries, the exhibition presents a significant overview of the museum’s collection of Indiana, Midwestern, and American art. Curated by Kim Hoffmann, local and regional artists will be featured as well as artists whose works are recognized on a national level. Paintings by Hoosier Impressionists and Chicago Imagists will be installed, as well as the community’s homegrown artists and art educators whose work has been collected by the SBRMA over the past 61 years.

Peruse though the local talent on view including works by David Allen, James Borden, Harry Coffman, Anthony Droege, Tuck Langland, Natalie Klein, Allen Larkin, Tom Meuninck, Doug Kinsey, Steve Moriarty, Dean Porter, Maria Tomasula, Bob Kuntz, Billy Ray Sandusky, Julie Tourtillotte, Don Vogl, Harold Zisla, Ron Monsma, Mitzi Sabato, and Fred Slaski.

Along with popular contemporary favorites and new acquisitions, works on paper by such artists as Milton Avery, Faith Ringold, Romare Bearden, John Baeder, Audrey Flack, Fairfield Porter, Larry Rivers, Phillip Guston, Louise Nevelson, and Andy Warhol, will delight new visitors and regular patrons in the Warner Gallery.

The Carmichael Gallery will feature historical Indiana paintings as well as works on paper by such artists as, Thomas Hart Benton, Isabel Bishop, John Sloan, and Grant Wood. This gallery will also highlight the Museum’s ongoing conservation program with recently conserved works by Alexis Jean Fournier, Sarah Kolb Danner, William Keith,  George Henry Bogert, Clarence L. Ball, Clifton Wheeler, and Daniel Kotz.

Perform/Install 2
June 7 - September 7, 2008
Opening Reception is Friday, June 6, 2008, 5:00 – 7:30
Kick-Off Performance is Friday, June 6, 7:30 p.m.

It is not new for a museum to put on events or design exquisite installations. It also is not new for museums to share the art viewing experience with a performance in the same locale. For the SBRMA, it is a regular happening and has been for many years. What is new, however, is to celebrate the joining of events and art in the second coming of Perform/Install in the Warner Gallery on June 7 – September 7, 2008. This fusion comes to the SBRMA in the form of three visual artists installing work and deliberately transforming the Warner Gallery into a performing arts venue.

FEATURED ARTISTS:
John Benvenuto - Dayton, OH
Benvenuto’s sculpture installations are architectural, site-specific, areas of “space” that are seductively cozy. Composed of rope, string, and mixed media, strung from wall-to-wall and to the ceiling above, his work intends to create a self-relational realm that is specific to each viewer as he enters the installation space. Describing the work, Benvenuto says, “The string and rope exists on literal and metaphoric levels: proscenium curtain; lines of affinity; ties that bind; representing plane and mass; lines of stress/support. These lines suggest permeability and paths for transit. By opening-up mass, room is made for the visitor to move in(to).”

Deb Whistler - Hanover, IN
Working skillfully and meticulously, Whistler has been exploring the technique of paper cutting for the past two years. The paper cuttings themselves visually disappear as the majority of the paper is cut away leaving the visual impact of the image to the cast shadow. Each delicate image becomes a lacey web like form. The forms themselves visually hint at a cocoon or insect eaten leaves. They seem to visually resurrect, becoming a skeletal reminder of a previous state of existence. Whistler says, “I enjoy that this work wrestles with the notion of existence, questions our purpose in life and the mark we leave behind. I have always been interested in the process of self-evaluation, and self-reflection. To me this process requires a certain objectivity, or out of body experience. It is important that we reflect on our actions and the effects of these actions as part of who we are.”

Brian Holderman - Pittsburgh, PA
Holderman, who works under the guise Cloud8, is a Pittsburgh based graphic artist and painter known for work that blends his illustration and hand drawn typography with traditional graphic design.  Representative of experimental and cutting-edge design in America today, Holderman’s work is raw, edgy and well-executed. From paintings to posters, his work is a blend of contemporary “cartooning” combined with the grittiness of urban street art and a dash of modernist abstraction. Holderman has been exhibited and collected throughout the US, including the Andy Warhol Museum and Giant Robot San Francisco. In addition to designing and painting, Holderman and his wife operate Zeto, an avant garde clothing company, which applies their artistic sensibility to casual street wear. They also run a shop and gallery called Apartment located in their Pittsburgh home.

FEATURED EVENTS:
Events will be presented through the course of the exhibition, please visit the EVENTS PAGE HERE.

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