New Exhibits Scheduled to Open in ICC Art Galleries in Mid-January
Two new exhibits open in mid-January in the Illinois
Central College art galleries, located on the East Peoria Campus.
Just Above the Surface, an exhibit by Veronica
Bruce Woodward, opens January 14 in the ICC Performing Arts Center Gallery,
located in the lobby of the facility. The exhibit runs through February 6. An
artist talk is scheduled on the closing date in the gallery from noon to 1 pm.
In
addition, between, an exhibit of the
art of Megan
Kathol Bersett, opens on January 16 in ICC
Gallery 336B, located in the Academic Building. A meet and greet with the
artist is scheduled on the opening date from 2 to 4 pm in the gallery,
including an artist talk beginning at 3 pm.
Veronica
Bruce Woodward
Veronica
Bruce Woodward is an artist whose work explores the spectrum of landscape
abstraction with an emphasis on the energetic undertones of a space. Her
paintings are grounded in formal considerations and architectural remnants. Her
works have been exhibited at Castle Fine Art in England, Gallery 19, The Nevica
Project, The Franklin, Backspace Collective, Robert Bills Contemporary, Park
Schreck Gallery, and at Aqua Art Miami. In 2012, she was awarded the ArtSlant
Prize and has completed artist residencies at Threewalls Chicago, Bundanon
Trust in New South Wales, Australia, and Nida Art Colony of the Vilnius Academy
of Arts in Lithuania.
The
artist said the title of her exhibit, Just
Above the Surface, has a two-fold reference. On one hand, many of the works
have a key mark of a wide brush which, when held softly just above the surface
of the paper, leaves a delicate, linear pattern and moves the eye around the composition.
The thin lines of the brush indicate the physicality of the light touch just grazing
the surface. This literal process of using a tool just above the surface embeds
a gentle, whimsical, and energetic quality to the landscape abstractions and
many of her paintings.
In
addition, on a conceptual level, the artist said she loves the idea of an
energetic aura that hovers just above the surface of an individual, carrying
one’s energy and emotions outward. She said she also likes the play on the
notion of what lies both above and below people’s levels of consciousness. Following
a sequence of decision making from one mark to the next, she said her paintings
stem from a physical process of being present with her materials.
“My
energetic state and personal life feed the works,” she said in her artist’s
statement for the exhibit. “Water, wind, sun, etc., are elements of the work,
simply holding the primary concern of what lies ‘Just Above the Surface’ of
things.”
She
received her bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Illinois in
2004 and completed a master of fine arts degree in painting from the University
of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2011. She has over 10 years of experience as an
art teacher, teaching art courses to a variety of audiences including secondary
education in suburban Chicago, as well as undergraduate courses at the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago. Most recently, she taught high school and
middle school art at
the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in
2017-2018.
Megan
Kathol Bersett
Megan
Kathol Bersett creates abstract mixed media paintings that visually process
basic cognitive, emotional, and psychological experiences. These functions help
construct an individual’s perceptions and guide their navigation of daily life.
The current show consists of a series of small canvases of close but varying
dimensions. They are made of acrylic and oil paint and paper collage. Shapes
and space are manipulated, interrupted, and combined using camouflage
techniques to create various types of intersections among different elements in
the work. In-between states arise, where shapes don't quite sit still because
of their fragmentation and their changing allegiances to their surroundings.
Megan
Kathol Bersett has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions at many venues
across the country, including: the Center for Contemporary Art (in Santa Fe, N.M.);
Hand Artes Gallery (Truchas, N.M.); The University of Massachusetts-Amherst; La
Casa Cultural (San Jose, Costa Rica); The Anderson Gallery at Drake University
(Des Moines, Iowa); McHenry County College (Crystal Lake); Jan Brandt Gallery (Bloomington);
and RampArts Gallery (Bloomington). At Drake University, she served as a
visiting artist and panelist. She was featured on Studiobreak.com, a
contemporary art podcast, and participated in Lori Waxman’s 60wrd/min art
critic performance critique at University Galleries of Illinois State
University in Normal.
She
was recently an artist in residence at the Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria
and was featured in Volume 37 of Studio
Visit magazine.
She
received a master of fine arts degree from Illinois State University and a
bachelor of fine arts degree Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. She
teaches art at several colleges in the Bloomington-Normal area.
Hours
of operation for Gallery 336B are Monday through Thursday, from 9 am to 5 pm
and Friday from 9 am to noon. The Performing Arts Center Gallery is open Monday
through Thursday from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, and Friday from 9:30 am to noon. In
addition, the Performing Arts Center Gallery also is accessible when the
Performing Arts Center is open for public events. Operation of all galleries
varies with ICC’s holidays and breaks.
The
exhibits are presented by the ICC Art Program and the Arts at ICC. The Arts at
ICC has a rich history of enhancing the arts community and expanding education
beyond the classroom. Arts at ICC presents more than 500 exhibits,
performances, lectures, rehearsals, meetings, master classes, clinics,
seminars, receptions, orientations, forums, auditions and tournaments annually.
For
more information or to confirm a gallery will be open at a particular time,
visit ArtsAtICC.com or contact the ICC Arts and Behavioral Sciences Department
at (309) 694-5113.
Comments
Post a Comment