Blown Away
January 25 through March 30, 2008
Guest Curators: Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox
Serving as the visual focus of Hollywood blockbuster films and television news stories pertaining to the current war in Iraq, explosions have become a part of popular culture. This exhibition featured work in a variety of media by artists expressing an interest in explosions—from the intensity of an impending event to the sensation of the release and the reverberations of the ensuing shockwaves.
Artists in the exhibition included Michael Bell-Smith, Boym Partners Inc., Adam Cvijanovic, E. V. Day, Heide Fasnacht, Barnaby Furnas, Carlos Garaicoa, John Gerrard, Penelope Gottlieb, Fabrice Gygi, Jone Kvie, Pia Lindman, Stefana McClure, Cornelia Parker, Sarah Pickering, Michael Rakowitz, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Ruff, Charles Sandison, Eduardo Santiere, and David Svensson.
Image credit: Michael Bell-Smith, Action Hack (Crystal), 2007, 9-sec. loop, single channel video loop, edition of 5 + 2AP, Courtesy of the artist and Foxy Production, New York © Michael Bell-Smith
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Exhibition programming
February 7
4:30 pm: IPRH/KAM Exhibition Tour, Film Screening, and Panel Discussion
A gallery tour of Blown Away given by curator Judith Hoos Fox, followed by the film screening of Blowup (1966) and a panel discussion on "Rupture in Film" featuring U of I faculty members
Children of Arcadia
January 25 through March 30, 2008
Curator: Damon Baker
To coincide with Blown Away, the
Intermedia Gallery featured a new work
by Mark Skwarek (with programmers
Joseph Hocking and Arthur Peters)
entitled Children of Arcadia. This panoramic view into a
living-electronic world was realized using technologies from online video
games and KAM's CANVAS (Collaborative Advanced Navigation Virtual Art
Studio). While the tools used to create this artwork are cutting-edge
technology, the visual inspiration is allegorical paintings that were
popular during the Baroque period, such as Laurent de La Hyre's Death of the Children of Bethel (1653). The project overlayed
downtown Manhattan's financial district with a lush virtual Arcadia. The virtual overlay carved away at the
physical space of the financial district leaving behind the New
York Stock Exchange, the Federal Hall Memorial building, and the Federal Reserve.
Image credit: Mark Skwarek, Children of Arcadia, 2007, interactive virtual world, Courtesy of the artist © Mark Skwarek
Jay Ryan: Animals and Objects In and Out of Water
January 25 through May 11, 2008
Guest Curators: Jennifer Misuzu Gunji-Ballsrud and Mary Antonakos
Ryan’s posters, bedecked with quirky characters falling, bicycling, battling, or staring blankly are a staple of many fine art poster galleries. He has created posters for his own band, Dianogah, as well as for dozens of underground U.S. indie bands, such as Fugazi, Shellac, Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips, Stereolab, and Sonic Youth. Ryan’s distinctive illustrations and handwriting grace his work and give his posters that edge, the kind that makes you want to tear down and steal, just so you can have a piece of his work.
This exhibition featured a wide range of Ryan's posters from the past several years. More about Jay Ryan can be found at his website.
Image credit: Jay Ryan, Murky Waters, 2007, seven screens on found posterboard © Jay Ryan
Exhibition programming
February 8
10 am–12 pm: Artist Demonstration
"It's Fun to Hang out with Jay Ryan, Sometimes: Monotonous Lecture and Confusing Printing Demonstration." Sponsored by the Lorado Taft Lectureship on Art Fund/College of Fine and Applied Arts
MusiVerse
April 4 through June 1, 2008
Curator: Damon Baker
Benjamin Smith's "MusiVerse" was a
3-D virtual environment for the
algorithmic creation of music that
draws on the same technology that
makes elaborate multi-person online
games and virtual worlds possible.
This software was presented using
KAM’s CANVAS.
Image credit: Benjamin Smith, MusiVerse, 2008 © Benjamin Smith
Exhibition programming
April 3
5:30 pm: Gallery Conversation
"Intersections Between Games and Art in Virtual Worlds," by Noah Wardrip-Fruin, exhibiting artist
Landscapes of Experience and Imagination: Explorations by Midwest Latina/o Artists
April 4 through July 27, 2008
Guest Curator: Judith Hoos Fox
Research Assistance: Oscar E. Vázquez and David Orta
This exhibition examined the responses of Latina/Latino artists to the natural and built environment. These six, largely Chicago-based artists explored the theme of landscapes through mixed and new narrative media installations, as well as through more traditional means of drawing, painting, and sculpture. Their works addressed the memories or imaginings of a tropical forest, the suburbs, and the density of urban-scapes, as well as the artists' own self-identities or understandings of the Latin presence in the United States.
Image credit: Paul Sierra, Afternoon Landscape © Paul Sierra
Exhibition programming
April 14
4 pm: IPRH/KAM Panel Discussion
"Landscapes and Identity in Latina/Latino Arts," a discussion featuring U of I faculty members
Petals & Paintings
April 11 through April 13, 2008
Curator: Rick Orr, member of the American
Institute of Floral Designers
Innovative floral arrangements inspired by
works from the museum’s permanent
collection are created by award-winning
floral designers for this outstanding annual
exhibition.
Image credit: Installation view, 2008
School of Art + Design Master of Fine Arts Exhibition: Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
April 18 through April 27, 2008
This annual exhibition represents the culmination of intense artistic development for graduate students in photography, industrial design, sculpture, painting, narrative media, metals, ceramics, and graphic design. Composed of uniquely varied works, the exhibition formed a visual map that deconstructs, reconstructs, and recontextualizes the perceived environment.
Image credit: Installation view, 2008
Reflections on Rural Life
April 23 to May 18, 2008
Guest Curator: Don Chambers
This exhibition featured over 50 works with an agricultural or rural life theme. The artwork varied from etchings of contemporaries of Rembrandt van Rijn, such as Nicolas Berchem and Stefano della Bella, to modern works by National Artist of the Ukraine Vladimir Lavrenyuk and American artist Andrew Wyeth.
School of Art + Design Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition
May 3 through May 11, 2008
The work of BFA graduates in this fourth annual exhibition displayed a broad range of art and design studio practices that illustrated new and established technologies in material and virtual realms. Participating students specialized in crafts, graphic design, industrial design, painting, sculpture, and photography.
Image credit: Installation view, 2008
Contrasting Architectural Visions:
Piranesi and Brenna in 18th-Century Rome
May 19 through July 27, 2008
Curator: Robert G. LaFrance
Eighteenth-century Rome abounded with artists and amateurs who derived inspiration from the city’s monumental ruins. This exhibition highlighted the contrasting visions of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) and Vincenzo Brenna (1741-1820), architects of overlapping generations who championed ancient Roman architecture and created works of art for foreigners on the Grand Tour.
Image credit: Vincenzo Brenna, Section Reconstruction of the Northwest Wall of the Throne Room in Domitian's Palace, 1777, pen, ink, and watercolor on paper, Art Acquisition Fund
Finding the Self in Abstract Expressionism: Selections
from the Permanent Collection
May 19 through July 27, 2008
Curator: Kathryn Koca
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, artists
living in New York produced a truly American
mode of artistic expression amidst the
influence of European modernist expatriates.
Although they would be referred to as the
New York School, the artists would not
consider themselves a cohesive group.
Working in diverse styles, Jackson Pollock,
Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and others
responded to the social tension brought on by the Great Depression and the end of World War II by turning inward. The physical immediacy of their medium became increasingly important, as did the overall process of making art, particularly the expression of the artist’s ideas in the throes of creation. Instead of depicting representational forms or constructing blatantly political images, they utilized highly abstracted forms and expanses of color to create a visceral experience for the viewer.
This installation presented a collection of works selected from the holdings of Krannert Art Museum that were representative of and influenced by Abstract Expressionist artists.
Image credit: Adolph Gottlieb, Romanesque Facade, 1949, oil on canvas, Festival of the Arts Purchase Fund