Calendar
THEN NOW
Featuring Dianne Wolter’s paintings and sculptures.
August 3- October 5, 2018
Reception September 8, 3-5PM
ARTIST STATEMENT
Painting provides me a process driven opportunity to experiment, discover, manipulate, play, and sometimes even tell a story. I value mark making and like to see evidence of the history of the process in the finished painting. Narrative has been a component of my art that allows me to ask questions and make observations. I use whimsy as a means to enliven or to soften the content. Recurring themes and images return to new environments. Images that possess a personal iconography are infused with content from experiences and memories that hold power. I begin by creating an active ground plane, and then working out to the surface, sometimes finding rather than imposing imagery. I enjoy working figuratively, layering, searching for ideas and inspiration from the manipulation of the media, and often but not always embracing a narrative.
Adding papier-mâché sculpture to my studio involvement has been a logical and natural extension to my previous singular focus of two-dimensional work. The process is reductive, starting with foam forms that have been created by gluing construction foam into blocks that can be carved. Papier-mâché mulch and layers of paper finish off the surfaces and ease transitions and contours. The torn paper can communicate a new narrative while holding onto its past. I find myself stacking forms which is another way of layering, bringing elements together in proximity or support, contrasting familiar with fantastic.
BIO
Dianne Wolter graduated from Michigan State University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a teaching certificate. Teaching and studio involvement have been the focus of her professional life since then. She concentrated on fabric collage for the first 14 years of her creative journey, teaching it in public schools throughout southern Michigan sponsored by the Michigan Council for the Arts. In 1979, Wolter began teaching after school art classes in her home studio to area children. Sharing her studio with children was a rewarding and meaningful opportunity. To concentrate more fully on her own art, she retired from teaching in 2002 to focus more on painting. A whim to make a cat riding on a unicycle introduced sculpture as an additional interest. Since then, Wolter has been enjoying both sculpture and painting.
For more information about Dianne’s work please visit her website:
JESSE REED / SEPTEMBER 25 / 109 S KEDZIE / 6PM
Jesse Reed is a graphic designer living and working in New York City. He co-founded the independent publishing imprint, Standards Manual, in 2014 and is currently a partner at the Design Consultancy, Order.
For more information about Jesse Reed’s work please visit:
ZIG JACKSON / OCTOBER 8 / B310 WELLS / 7PM
Photographer and Professor at SCAD, Zig Jackson identifies and tackles issues that sometimes radically different Native American tribes have in common such as how to deal with tourism. marketing, myth, traditions, and stereotyping. He uses his work to raise awareness about cultural identity, representation, and appropriation to touch on issues like paternalism, sovereignty, and commodification.
For more information about Zig Jackson, please visit:
DEL HARROW/ OCTOBER 16 / 109 S KEDZIE / 6PM
Spanning the genres of sculpture, ceramics and design, Del Harrow is an Associate Professor at CSU. His art practice integrates traditional manual and skill-based forming processes with digital fabrication technology. His work is an ongoing exploration of the possibility that a tactile physical form might contain, creating sites for the imagination and the thinking of thoughts.
For more information about Del Harrow, please visit:
RENEE MUSSAI / OCTOBER 25 / 107 S KEDZIE / 6PM
London-based curator, writer, and art historian, Renée Mussai is Curator and head of Archive at Autograph ABP, an arts charity that works internationally in photography and film, addressing themes of cultural identity, race, representation and human rights.
Join the Department of Art, Art History, and Design on Friday, November 2 from 2-4pm in the MSU Main Library 4th Floor Green Room for the Biennial Art History and Visual Culture Alumni Symposium. This is an opportunity to hear from MSU Alumni pursuing careers in a variety of arts and culture related fields.
Eric Booker: Education and outreach at the Studio Museum, New York
Sydney Richards: Matthaei Gardens at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Janine Yorimoto Boldt: Curator at American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia
Lisa Wolter: Vice President of ArtsWave Community Campaign, Cincinnati
TITUS KAPHAR / NOVEMBER 5 / MSU Union Ball Room /6PM
Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Titus Kaphar lives and works on the east coast. Kaphar’s
mixed media work, speaks to the most vital discussions happening around race,
diversity, and reconciliation in the U.S. Kaphar exposes how all depictions, no matter
how personal or grandiose, are always fictional, imperfect, and capable of being
remade. He is the distinguished recipient of the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence
Fellowship as well as the 2015 Creative Capital Award and 2016 Rauschenberg Artist
as Activist Fellowship.
For more information about Titus Kaphar, please visit:
DR STEPHEN EISENMAN / NOVEMBER 29 / MSU LIBRARY GREEN ROOM / 6PM
Dr. Stephen Eisenman is a Professor of Art History at Northwestern. Eisenman is the author of nine books, including most recently Zooicide, with the artist Sue Coe. Eisenman has also curated and reviewed exhibitions, written articles and op-eds. Eisenman will present the keynote lecture for the 2018 Art History & Visual Culture Symposium.
Fundamentals of Comic Art and Graphic Novel students from this semester will have their work featured at Hollow Mountain Comics and Games in East Lansing, MI. This in-store signing on Saturday, December 8th begins at 12pm and ends at 2pm. Stop-in to purchase a copy of their comic books and get it signed by the artist.