The newest exhibition at the Warren Robbins Center for Graduate Studies highlights three artists - Ann Agee, Oliver Herring and Kara Walker - who use traditional media and techniques to comment on contemporary and historical society.
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Warren Robbins Center Exhibition School of Art and Design Through Feb. 4, 1997 |
Three of these figurines are on display at the Robbins Center, along with another work, titled "Blue Maxi." This work of gauche and cutouts on rice paper is completely handmade. The piece consists of red roses painted onto a light blue background, with paper flowers cut from cleaning products, feminine hygiene products boxes and food and makeup labels.
Also on exhibition is a work by Oliver Herring, a German-born former abstract painter. His untitled work is a tribute to his late friend, a male performance artist, who took his life soon after learning that he had AIDS. With the death of Eichelberger, Herring found himself unable to do anything, and to pass the time, he took up knitting, which led into the work for which he is now known. The untitled piece on exhibition is a coat, painstakingly knit from translucent wrapping tape. The work has the shimmer of lamé and chills the viewer with its combination of sturdiness and fragility.
Drawing inspiration from an equally sad subject is Kara Walker, an African American artist from Providence, R.I. Her artwork focuses on black/white relationships in the ante-bellum South. Using black cutout silhouettes on white backgrounds, Walker creates 18th century scenes that depict tragic encounters between members of the two races.
On display now are four pieces by Walker, all of which are quite graphic. For example, one untitled piece shows a slave owner rolling over a small slave boy with a giant rock. Walker's message is easily understood: We are all one people, and this is man's inhumanity to man - color is irrelevant.
"One reason for this show is that (these artists) all employ traditional media in an untraditional way," said Agusto Arbizo, curator of the Robbins Center.
In addition, all three artists are just now starting to become well-known nationally. And you heard it here first.