•
COLORFAST: Sculpture by Brad Mosby and Photographs by Claudia Smiley
The exhibition, COLORFAST, opens with a reception for the exhibiting artists on Friday, April 18, from 5pm to 7pm, at McLean County Arts Center. COLORFAST will be on view in the MCAC’s Armstrong Gallery through May 31, 2008.
The exhibition is generously sponsored by Jan and Peter Brandt.
Artists Brad Mosby and Claudia Smiley both utilize the effects of color and light to explore and heighten abstract forms.
Laminated wood sculptures by local artist Brad Mosby feature simple, graceful arcing shapes whose interiors pulse with a solid primary color. Mosby explains “There is much to be said for what isn’t there. Objects made become the backside of thought. Perhaps speaking of a past not far behind. Half circles of an uncompleted life or laminations of personal experience.”
Digital inkjet prints by Claudia Smiley (a Chicago artist, formerly from Bloomington, Illinois) feature images of train graffiti. Smiley isolates and frames a compelling fragment of graffiti and further abstracts the image and heightens the color with digital or computer alterations to produce inkjet prints that serve as a “painterly interpretation of the graffiti rather than a strict photographic record.”
 |
 |
| Red Square by Claudia Smiley | Comfort of Lies by Brad Mosby |
Artist Statement:
This new body of work consists of images of train graffiti. Graffiti is used as a language to communicate to a specific audience in a specific way. Train graffiti began as simple chalk or paint stick monikers left by hobos or railroad workers. Current writers spray paint images covering an entire train car. Train graffiti consists mainly of elaborately depicted names or nicknames of the writers. Applying the graffiti to trains allows the writers a larger audience as it may be seen throughout the country. One writer describes it as a traveling art show. Many see graffiti as defacement or vandalism. Others find beauty in it. Either way, it has become a part of our landscape.
My work is always about color and light. Train graffiti opened an opportunity to capture color and abstract form. My particular view is of an isolated part of the total image. The use of the spray paint creates a soft texture juxtaposed with the hard metal of the train car. The scrapes & imperfections in the metal add layers to the image similar to the way a painter may apply paint to a canvas. The color has been manipulated by computer much in the same way color can be manipulated by film developing and darkroom techniques. The resulting image becomes a painterly interpretation of the graffiti rather than a strict photographic record.
Claudia Smiley
2008
An artist reception for Ms. Benjamin will be held on Saturday, January 19, from 5pm to 7pm at MCAC
Jessica Benjamin shows paintings from The American Series
at MCAC
Originally from Bloomington-Normal, Jessica Benjamin is currently a practicing
artist residing in New York City. She will be returning home this winter for an
exhibition of her work at McLean County Arts Center. MCAC will exhibit paintings
from Benjamin’s The American Series in the Armstrong Gallery January 11 through
February 16, 2008. The exhibition is generously sponsored by Friends of the
Artist.
With The American Series, Benjamin endeavors conceptually to create a portrait
of the United States by painting composite portraits of its residents. In
combining her fine drawing ability with a dynamic use of color and expressive
brushwork, Benjamin uses the medium of paint to give viewers pause to ponder
what we come to know about ourselves and others through the mass of visual
imagery that collides with us every day and how this visual barrage effects our
understanding of ourselves and the world. For Benjamin painting “is capable of
creating an instantaneous mood and feeling as pronounced as the reality of the
subject.”
Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis used paintings from The American Series to
illustrate his album From the Plantation to the Penitentiary. The paintings were
previously shown at the New York Historical Society.
In addition to her exhibition, Ms. Benjamin will be leading free workshops for
children at MCAC. Portrait Workshop: Our Community / Ourselves will be held on
Saturday, January 12. The first session (10am to Noon) is for Grades K – 2 and
the second session (1pm to 3pm) is for Grades 3 – 5. Space is limited so
registration is required. Contact Tony at 309/829-0011 or
tony@mcac.org. The
resulting portraits will be exhibited in the lobby area of the MCAC through
February 16, 2008.
An artist reception for Ms. Benjamin will be held on Saturday, January 19, from
5pm to 7pm at MCAC, just prior to the Bloomington Center for the Performing
Arts’ presentation of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. The
reception is free and open to the public.
Additionally, MCAC is hosting High School Jazz at MCAC on the afternoon of
Saturday, January 19. Beginning at noon and hourly thereafter local high school
jazz bands will be showcasing their talents. This event is a non-competitive
opportunity for high school jazz bands to play for and listen to each other. The
program is free and open to the public.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Andrea Buckvold January 11 – February 16, 2007 Brandt Gallery
Opening reception, Friday, January 11, 5-7pm
Up the Ante! A Casino Project by Andrea Buckvold at MCAC
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
For her exhibition – The LV, NV NFP H-R-C Project
– at McLean County Arts
Center, artist Andrea Buckvold shares her ongoing conceptual experiment for a
not-for-profit, hotel-resort-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Combining her
fascination with the over-the-top aesthetics of Las Vegas with her long time
interest in the manifest destiny of the American West, Buckvold has shaped a
development plan for a casino, to be built in the expansive manner of Las Vegas’
casinos while qualifying as a green facility, to serve a greater good than
corporate profit by funding emerging artists, and to showcase contemporary art
and culture.
The exhibition consists of the five developmental phases of Buckvold’s project:
Phase I: Research & Design includes photographs, large and small drawings,
prints, architectural sketches of, about, or in relation to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Phase II: Incubation includes works on paper that utilize iconic images of Las
Vegas and gambling.
Phase III: Models includes three-dimensional architectural sketches.
Phase IV: Translations includes graphically designed abstractions – works on
paper, small watercolor studies, and digital prints – of the photographs from
Phase I. In regrouping and reforming these abstractions, Buckvold creates new
compositions that are intended to serve as the textile designs for the casino.
Phase V: Prototypes includes the physical prototypes – carpet samples, quilts,
and drawings – from Phase IV’s graphic abstractions.
Andrea Buckvold lives and works in Syracuse, New York. Raised in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, she received a B.A from The Colorado College, and an M.F.A. in
sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked as a gallery
educator for the Liberace Museum and Guggenheim Las Vegas/Guggenheim Hermitage,
as a children's art teacher, an adjunct professor, a printing assistant for
Tandem Press, and an office manager for 3-D Chicago. Prior to moving to
Syracuse, Buckvold worked for Carbondale Community Arts, the Lights Fantastic®
Parade Committee and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her studio
practice, which she describes as “in the manner of art, but at a leisurely
pace,” has focused on The LV, NV NFP H-R-C Project since 1999. Additionally she
creates “silly little experiments of form concept, material, culture, and free
time” (visit www.abcdexperiments.com)
and works collaboratively with her husband, Chris Wildrick, under the name Earl.
Andrea Buckvold’s exhibition opens with a public reception on Friday, January
11, from 5pm to 7pm, during which the artist will offer a short talk (at
approximately 6pm). The artist’s talk and exhibition are generously sponsored by
Commerce Bank. The LV, NV NFP H-R-C Project is on view in MCAC’s Brandt Gallery
through February 16, 2008.
In conjunction with Andrea Buckvold’s exhibition, MCAC will offer daily
screenings of Scott Rankin’s video, Wire. Rankin describes Wire as an
investigation of the experience of gambling and the game of Blackjack; its
structure and rhythms, its intellectual and emotional ups and downs, and its
rituals and lore. Wire blends visual and aural representations of the casino
atmosphere and Blackjack, with observations about the game, consciousness,
attention, desire, chaos, probability, and ‘human nature’. Scott Rankin is an
associate professor in video art at ISU’s School of Art. Wire (1998,
NTSC/stereo, 56 minutes) will be screened Tuesday through Saturday at 11am and
3pm and additionally at 6pm on Tuesdays.
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
||
The free mailing list sign-up is "double opt-in" process. If you chose to enroll, you will receive a confirming e-mail in the next few minutes. Your subscription will only be activated if you reply to that message. Please check your mail, including bulk folders, and reply to our message to activate. Adding this sender to your safe list will allow you to receive messages more easily. We generally send out two e-mails a month to our Events & Exhibits list. Your information will not be rented or sold to any third party.
|
||
