City Lights: The Photographs of John Dowell
January 22 – March 4, 2012
SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ MONUMENT
Indianapolis, Inkjet print
Presented in partnership with an ANONYMOUS FOUNDATION
The Evansville Museum’s 2012 art exhibition series opens with the January 22 – March 4 Old Gallery presentation of CITY LIGHTS: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF JOHN DOWELL. Philadelphia native and Professor of Printmaking at the prestigious Tyler School of Art at Temple University, John Dowell captures the pulse of various American cities in his large scale color photographs.
Dowell has worked as an artist for over four decades. A master printmaker whose prints, paintings and photographs have been featured in 49 one person exhibitions, he is represented in the permanent collections of 70 museum and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Boston Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, France. Dowell’s photographs have been added to the collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Museum of Harvard University, the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Lehigh University Museum.
Dowell writes about his current imagery of American cities at night, “There is an excitement of the city that is often overlooked. These structures of our culture soar to the sky and hold intimate details of our lives. They embody our energies with moments of magic. I want to capture all aspects of time – the past, the present and the hopes for the future.”
For additional information about Dowell and images of his photographs: www.johndowell.com
John Dowell will present an illustrated lecture about his work to the public at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 19, at a Champagne Brunch at the Museum.
EXPLORING ELEMENTS: STONE/WOOD/BRONZE
February 1 – April 1, 2012
FREE SPIRIT
Bronze
The hand carved wood and cast bronze sculpture of John Evans will be featured in a February 1 – April 1 exhibition EXPLORING ELEMENTS: STONE/WOOD/BRONZE in the Museum’s Second Floor Alcove Gallery.
A sculptor for over 20 years, Evans maintains a studio just outside Columbus, Ohio, in what were originally the outbuildings that surround his mid-19th century Italianate country home. A native of Ohio, Evans received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University in Athens and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Instituto Allende at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. His major artistic influences include the sculptors Henry Moore, Constantin Brancusi, Clement Meadmore and David Hostetler, his professor and mentor at Ohio University.
Evans comments, “Initially, my goals were to simply carve wood in such a way as to create an illusion with the process itself – almost as if I had just twisted the wood into its new form by hand instead of carving it. These explorations evolved into various themes and my primary interests are the capturing of motion in time, emotional expression, and investigating the potential of two dimensional ideas in three dimensional space.”
Represented by galleries in Nantucket, Massachusetts and Columbus, Ohio, Evans produces work for corporate and private collections throughout the United States.
For additional information about John Evans and photographs of his sculpture: www.evanssculpture.com
High School Art Show
March 15 - April 15
Presented in partnership with ROBERT B. and MARIANNA S. WRIGHT
in memory of SHIRLEY K. WRIGHT (1929-2003)
and the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM GUILD
Now in its 49th year, the HIGH SCHOOL ART SHOW continues the tradition of honoring young artists from our region. Students currently enrolled in Grades 9 through 12 in public and private schools in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Pike, Posey, and Gibson Counties in Indiana will enter work in the categories of painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry,textiles, ceramics, photography and commercial design.
The March 15 – April 15 Old Gallery exhibition will open with an awards reception on Thursday, March 15 at 7:00 p.m. Volunteers from the Museum Guild and Museum Docent Association anticipate nearly 800 entries for review by this year’s juror, Becky Alley, Exhibitions and Programs Director for the Lexington Art League (LAL) in Lexington, Kentucky.
Alley earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in studio art from Washington University in 2000, and a Master of Fine Art from the University of Kansas in 2005. Before joining the LAL staff in January 2010, Alley was the Director of University Galleries at Murray State University for nearly four years. She has organized over 100 shows and has curated several major projects including Think Tank, an international show of political art. She has also exhibited her artwork in several galleries across the United States as well as in South Korea and China, and most recently had a solo exhibition titled COUNT at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.
Cast in Bronze: The Figurative Sculpture of Gino Miles
ONE OF A KIND REJUVINATION
Bronze
The exhibition CAST IN BRONZE: THE FIGURATIVE SCULPTURE OF GINO MILES will be in the Museum’s
Second Floor Alcove Gallery from April 10 – July 29.
Colorado native Gino Miles became interested in art while attending the University of Northern Colorado. His study of painting and sculpture took him to Italy, where he took classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and at the Universitá per Stranieri di Perugia. Greatly influenced by the ancient ruins and art of the Etruscans, Romans and Greeks, Miles became fascinated with the rich cultural relationship between sculpture, architecture and the surrounding landscape.
Miles returned to the United States and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado in 1979. He and his wife spent several years in Europe before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1983. He established a successful foundry business and, in 2003, he opened Sculpture 619, a gallery on Canyon Road in the heart of Santa Fe’s art district.
For additional information about Gino Miles and images of his sculpture: www.sculpture619.com
Beauty, Joy, and Wonder: The Sculpture of Ann Weber
April 29 - July 22, 2012
Presented in partnership with the WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR. and PHYLLIS R. GRIMM CHARIT ABLE TRUST
Artist Ann Weber, who grew up in Evansville, is a petite woman with an infectious charm. As a sculptor, her tools are a $25 Arrow P-22 stapler, a box cutter, polyurethane and piles of cardboard she’s pulled from trash bins around her neighborhood in Emeryville, California.
Cutting the cardboard into strips and stapling the pieces together, Weber creates large scale sculptures which are acclaimed for their organic shape, intricate design and innovative use of materials. She was drawn to the challenge of making beauty from something so common and ubiquitous as cardboard. Crediting her Hoosier roots, Weber laughs as she recalls the old adage, “We Midwesterners are known for our ability to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
Weber’s solo exhibition BEAUTY, JOY, AND WONDER: THE SCULPTURE OF ANN WEBER will be featured in the Museum’s Old Gallery from April 29 – July 22.
Weber graduated from Purdue University, earning a BA in Art History in 1972, and went on to study at the New School of Social Research in New York. She began her career working with clay as a medium, creating utilitarian ceramics in upstate New York for nearly a decade and, later, operating a production pottery business in New York City. Inspired by an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of the monumental work of ceramicist Viola Frey, Weber moved to Oakland, California to study with Frey at the California College of Arts and Crafts. There she earned her MFA in Ceramics in 1987.
Weber recalls, “I started working in cardboard in 1991 because I wanted to make large forms and wanted to eliminate the cumbersome process of clay and the weight of large clay objects. The sculptures read as metaphors for life experiences such as the balancing acts that define our lives or how far you can go with something before it collapses.”
Weber’s massive cardboard sculptures astound viewers with her inventiveness and remind us of the capacity for unexpected transformations. She notes, “I love the simplicity of cardboard. I love how it invites you to see things differently.”
For additional information about Weber and images of her sculpture: www.annwebersculpture.com
Ann Weber will present an illustrated lecture about her work to the public at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 29, at a Champagne Brunch at the Museum.
The Wry Theatre of Robert Jackson
May 27 - August 19
DAREDEVIL
Oil on linen, 2006
Museum Purchase with funds from the Charles Young Trust
Presented in partnership with the MARTHA AND MERRITT DEJONG FOUNDATION
and the DAUS FAMILY FOUNDATION in memory of JOHN J. DAUS, JR.
The Artist’s Residency is sponsored by the ROBERT G. GRAVES FAMILY in honor of VIRGINIA G. SCHROEDER
Robert C. Jackson, described by Evansville Museum Director John Streetman as “among our most important mid-career American realist painters,” has been selected as the Museum’s 2012 Martha and Merritt deJong Memorial Artistin- Residence. In conjunction with his residency and weeklong classes, THE WRY THEATRE OF ROBERT JACKSON will be featured in the Main Gallery May 27 – August 19.
The Evansville Museum’s connection with still life painter Robert C. Jackson began in 2007 when he was one of 15 American realist painters who we invited to participate in a major touring exhibition, Object Project, organized by our Museum. Jackson’s landmark work from that exhibition, entitled “Daredevil,” a masterful combination of stunning technique and quirky imagery, was purchased by the Museum for our permanent collection. The five objects required for inclusion in each of the Object Project works – a ball of string, a mirror, a moth, a glass of water, and an animal bone – are included in this painting in a most amusing narrative.
Jackson writes about his paintings, “Laughter is worth pursuing. If art is to feed our souls and assist us in encountering our humanity, then a balanced part of our diets should be humor. There is an immeasurable amount of healing, depth, and truth to laughter or a smile. I aim to affirm reality, yet offer hope and a laugh. My characters show us our foibles and sometimes make big issues easier to swallow. Hopefully we are able to laugh the hardest at ourselves.”
After graduating in 1986 from the University of Delaware with a degree in Electrical Engineering, Jackson began his career as a radio systems engineer with Motorola. He felt called to leave the engineering field
after five years to pursue another career track, working the next six years as an assistant pastor for the Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland.
Since 1997, Jackson has been a full time artist and has exhibited his work throughout the United States. He lives in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania with his wife, Suzanne, who is an opera singer, and their three children.
For additional information about Robert C. Jackson and images of his paintings: www.robertcjackson.com.
