Event: Illinois Wesleyan School of Arts presents: Merwin & Wakeley Gallery Art Exhibitions by Erika Nelson and Dianne Lancia
Dates: Exhibits will be on display from April 28-May 27, 2003 (galleries will be closed May 1-6 and Memorial Day, May 26)
Artist’s Lecture, May 27 (Tuesday)
Closing Reception, May 27 (Tuesday)
Time: Gallery Hours: 12-4 p.m. (Monday-Friday)
7-9 p.m. (Tuesday evening)
1-4 p.m. (Saturday and Sunday)
Artist’s Lecture with Nelson, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Closing Reception, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: Joyce G. Eichhorn Ames School of Art, 6 Ames Plaza, Bloomington
Admission: Free, open to the public
Background: The exhibit Domesticated, by artist Erika Nelson is intended to present a deconstructed version of the American Dream.
The installation is made of assembled vignettes incorporating “Genericana,” and personal narrative, arranged in a floor plan that resembles a typical 1960s-70s era ranch house. The vignettes focus on situations that inhibit communication, the idea of “seeming versus being,” and the awkward silences of family and the memories of those silences.
Nelson’s intent is to show that the environment as a whole, invites the viewer to participate as much as he or she is comfortable, not unlike walking through a furnished home with the owners absent. Since the materials are not precious, but relatively personal, there is a “hands on if you dare” attitude towards touching, sitting, feeling, and interacting with the work.
Nelson describes herself as a visionary artist, educator, and one of America’s foremost experts on the World’s Largest Things.” She is also the founder and curator of a traveling roadside attraction and museum called “The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things.”
Recent Work by California artist Dianne Lancia is on display in the Wakeley Gallery. The exhibit features dynamic arrangements of geometric forms and layered mark-making. Influenced by bookbinding, the non-representational images are often divided into two halves, and constructed with a variety of techniques and materials including wood, metal, acrylic sheeting and paint.
Contact: For additional information, contact Jennifer Lapham, director of Merwin & Wakeley Galleries at (309)556-3391.
