August 25 – October 10, 2009, Technology and Art Suite:
Rotunda Gallery: Jessica Gondek, Recent Paintings and Prints: Imperfect Models
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Solo show of abstract work by Montgomery artist Gondek who begins with compositions created via 3-D modeling programs that are then collaged and overprinted to reinterpret and humanize the computer-generated forms. The intermingling of hand and mechanical approaches in the work prompts a collision between intuition and computation.
Dimensional Figures and Environments: Artists Engaging Technology
Group exhibition of new media including digital printmaking and photography, rapid prototyping, and computer animation used by artists to examine three-dimensional form and space in ways that are at once familiar and strange, real and imaginary, combining fact with fiction. Includes digital photographs by Gloria DeFilipps Brush of Duluth, Minnesota; sculpture, video animations and digital prints by Gerald Guthrie of Champaign, Illinois; and sculpture and computer animations by Elona Van Gent of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Curated by Jessica Gondek, Loyola University, Chicago.
Karen Hanmer: Retro Tech
Chicago artist Karen Hanmer looks back at early forms of technology to see their impact on us. Her History and Technology series of artist books link the creative process of the artist with that of the inventor, explorer or scientist through first person accounts and archival photographs and artifacts. Her installation, Beaut(e) Code, documents interviews with software engineers regarding what they find beautiful or compelling about well-written software and the act of programming.
Summer 2009, Community Windows III
Posters Created for local Cultural Institutions and Museums with support from The DeKalb County Community Foundation.
Participants include:
Ellwood House Museum
Joiner History Room
Just Make It Happen
Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Kishwaukee Valley Art League
Nehring Center Gallery
NIU Anthropology Museum
Stage Coach Players
Shabbona-Lee-Rollo Historical Museum
Sycamore Historical Society & Museum
Late Spring Printmaking Suite - March 24 - May 9, 2009
Colorful silkscreen posters produced in "The Bird Machine", Ryan's shop where he creates colorful, limited edition silkscreen posters. Driven less by technological fads than by old-fashioned visual inventiveness and hard work, Ryan's designs have become highly sought after worldwide.
A survey of prints by renowned German artist famous for her unmistakable graphic style, empathic humanity and mordant social commentary. Eva Marie Worthington, Director of the Worthington Gallery, Chicago will present a lecture on Saturday April 18 at 2:30 in Altgeld Hall, room 315.
Hand-printed, hand-bound books by David Johnson, a mid-career artist from Indiana. Johnson's tools are deceptively simple: relif printing, etching and letterpress. His observations are shrewd, compassionate and introspective views of the people around him and the places they inhabit.
This exhibition summarizes a lifetime of remarkable achievements by printmaker David Driesbach, who weaves rich narratives into complex, colorful and whimsical prints. Co-organized with students enrolled in "Exhibition Interpretation" a graduate level Museum Studies course.
Contemporary fiber materials, concepts and process. Curated by Ellen Roth Deutsch and featuring work by: Renie Breskin Adams, Mary Bero, Ilse Bolle, Judith Brotman, Sun Choi, Cat Chow, Susan Etcoff Fraerman, Christine LoFaso, Danny Mansmith, Darrel Morris, Lindsay Obermeyer, Yvette Kaiser Smith, Sharon Wright and Betsy Youngquist.
Exploring "surface" as a particularly unique characteristic of the painting process. Curated by NIU Painting Professor Frank Trankina and featuring Dan Devening, Jim Lutes, Dorothee Joachim, Tracy Miller, and Tim Doud.
Facilitated by NIU Associate Professor of Design, Aleksandra Giza and featuring contemporary Polish Poster design.
A Selection of Contemporary Illinois Ceramics featuring work by:
Dan Anderson, Chris Berti, Charity Davis-Woodard, Paul Dresang, Erin Furimsky, Shane Harris, Steven Hill, Doug Jeppesen, Jim Kearns, Ron Kovatch, Yih Wen Kuo, Tyler Lotz, Ron Mazanowski, Kurt Webb and Matt Wilt.
Aspects of Burmese Buddhism featuring sculptures, textiles, tattoos, and household objects. Curated by Catherine Raymond, Director of the NIU Center for Burma Studies.
Poignant collaboration between collage artist Janette Maley and her husband documentary photographer Art Hand that chronicles their experience with Janette's breast cancer.
Global Matrix IIThrough October 3, 2008
A Contemporary Review of Fine Printmaking developed by the Purdue University Galleries. Global Matrix II features artists from 22 countries. North and Rotunda Gallery
June through August 2008
A series of posters celebrating local cultural institutions
Participating institutions include: Art Attack, Joseph F. Glidden Homestead & History Center, The Blackwell History of Education Museum and Milan Township One-Room School, DeKalb Area Women’s Center, Gurler Heritage Association, Regional History Center, Sandwich Opera House, Waterman Area Heritage Society and Museum
July 14 - 17, 2008
Annual Art to Lend exhibition of artwork from the permanent collection that is available to hang in secure campus offices.
There are nominal fees for this service to cover part of the Art Museum's incurred costs and for the direct care and maintenance of the collection, including matting and framing to make new selections available.
Read more details about the program.
If you have any questions, please call Pete Olson at 753-7867, or e-mail polson@niu.edu.
March 25 - May 10, 2008
Rotunda Gallery
NIU students and community members will participate, via a series of workshops with artist Gabriel Bizen Akagawa, to create an installation designed to explore humanity's relationship to the natural world in the 21st century. Art-shipping crates will be reused and recycled with the aim of creating work that reverberates on both personal and social levels.
A wikisite for the show is here.
Peggy Macnamara: Nature PaintingsMarch 25 - May 10, 2008
North Gallery
Large-scale watercolor paintings of indigenous flora and fauna as depicted by the Field Museum of Natural History's Artist-in-Residence, Peggy Macnamara.
Saturday, April 5:
1-2pm Artist talk in Altgeld 315
2-4pm Drawing workshop with Peggy.
Call 753-7867 to register for the free workshop.
March 25 - May 10, 2008
Hall Case Galleries
Scientific specimens and taxidermied studies coincide with our spring nature-themed exhibitions.
Examining AudubonApril 8 - May 10, 2008
South Galleries
Co-organized with Museum Studies students enrolled in Art 556, “Exhibition Interpretation,” this exhibition will focus on issues of connoisseurship, museum presentation and preservation as demonstrated through the many editions of John James Audubon prints made over the years.
"Adventures with John James Audubon" program with storyteller Brian "Fox" Ellis: 5pm on April 8 in Altgeld 315.
Ayomi Yoshida: Yedoensis January 15 - March 7, 2008
Rotunda Gallery
Contemporary Japanese artist Ayomi Yoshida, fourth generation in the Yoshida printmaking dynasty, will be in residency for approximately one month installing a work that will both contrast and augment the Ukiyo-e and Sôsaku Hanga displays in the other galleries. Her large-scale site-specific installations explore the physical aspects of the woodblock printmaking process. "Prunus x yedoensis" is the scientific name for a cultivated yoshino cherry tree. According to the artist, "Cherry trees seem to burst into blossom allat once, and after a day or two, drop thier petals just as quickly. In Japan they have long been emblematic of life's evanescence."
This exhibition, along with the accompanying exhibits of prints and objects from the Richard F. Grott Family, is part of the project "National/International Conciousness in Japan: Self, Place and Society During the Ninteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries."
A publication, supported in part by the Japan Foundation, is forthcoming.
The Gallery Notes for this exhibition are available in PDF form.
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Ayomi has created a blogsite for this exhibition.
Revisiting Modern Japanese Prints:January 15 - March 7, 2008
South Galleries
Mid-twentieth century Sôsaku Hanga (creative print movement) prints from the Museum's Richard F. Grott Family Collection will be examined thematically to explore Japanese concepts of nationalism and internationalism in the modern era.
This exhibition, along with the accompanying exhibits of pottery and ukiyo-e prints, is part of the project "National/International Conciousness in Japan: Self, Place and Society During the Ninteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries" and honors the generous donation of artwork from the Richard F. Grott Family to the NIU Art Museum.
The exhibitions were co-curated by NIU Assistant Professor of Art History Helen Nagata and NIU Professor Emerita Helen Merrritt with the assistance of NIU graduate and undergraduate students participating in Art History and Museum Studies courses.
The Gallery Notes for this exhibition are available in PDF form.
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Sponsored in part by a Venture Grant from the NIU Foundation, the James and Helen Merritt Foundation of the NIU School of Art, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, Friends of the NIU Art Museum and the ArtsFund 21.
Ukiyo-e Prints from the Richard F. Grott Family CollectionJanuary 15 - March 7, 2008
North Gallery
Highlighting a recent gift of Japanese prints to the NIU Art Museum, 19th century Ukiyo-e prints from the Richard F. Grott Family will be examined thematically. Co-curated by Helen Nagata and Helen Merritt.
The Gallery Notes for this exhibition are available in PDF form.
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A separate Gallery Note sheds light on the Ukiyo-e printmaking process.
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Japanese Pottery and Other Objects Family Collection
January 15 - March 7, 2008
Hallcase Gallery
Objects such as Bizen and Oribe ceramics, iron teapots and a wooden carving augment the exhibitions in the North and South Galleries.
The Gallery Notes for this exhibition are available in PDF form.
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NIU School of Art Faculty Biennial October 30 - December 8, 2007 All Altgeld Galleries All four gallery spaces will be filled with recent work by NIU School of Art faculty in a variety of studio media including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, fiber, jewelry, metalsmithing, and design, as well as research and publications in art education, art history, foundations and design. A related series of lectures is now listed on our events page Visit the School of Art's website. |
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Body Politic Contemporary artists explore the social and political ramifications of identity August 28 - October 13, 2007 South Galleries What we think about when we contemplate our corporeal selves, and what others assume about our identity based on their observations, make for unpredictable and fertile territory, out of which can spring myriad allusions and interpretations, including this exhibition. Artists include Molly Carter, Mary Dritschel, Anni Holm, Coke Wisdom O'Neal, Karen Savage and Jennifer Yorke. A brochure is available. |
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Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art August 28 - October 13, 2007 Hall Case and North Galleries A national traveling exhibition of handmade artist's books that celebrate the persistence of the artistic impulse in a nation troubled by tyranny and war. Curated by Nada Shabout at the University of North Texas, the exhibition presents work by seventeen artists spanning three generations. More photos and information are here. |
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Some Enchanted Evening 100 Years of Evening Gowns (1900 - 1999) August 28 - October 13, 2007 Rotunda Gallery An aesthetic, historical and socio-cultural look at exquisite designer gowns from the extraordinary collection of Barbara Cole Peters. Curated by Peters with extensive written commentary which will examine cultural developments of the twentieth century decade by decade. A brochure is available. |
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Community Windows a series of posters celebrating local cultural institutions May 14 - August 11, 2007 Hall Case Gallery Participants included: DeKalb Municipal Band, Egyptian Theatre, Kiswaukee Valley Heritage Society, Malta Historical Society, Marie Louise Olmstead Memorial Museum, Midwest Museum of Natural History, NIU Community School for the Arts, and the Sandwich Historical Society. We would like to thank the DeKalb County Community Foundation for support of this project. |
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High & Low: Chicago Hand Bookbinders March 20 - April 21, 2007 Hall Case Galleries Touring exhibition of the Chicago Hand Bookbinders 2007 annual thematic group show. This was the 2nd exhibition in our series exploring artist-made books (the first being 2006's Ars Libris). | ||
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The Uncertainty Principle: Drawing in the Golden Age of Worry March 20 - May 12, 2007 South Galleries The intimacy and immediacy of drawing makes it an ideal medium for quick response to the groundlessness and uncertainty that we find ourselves surrounded by in this “Golden Age of Worry”. Artists included: Charles La Belle, Shona MacDonald, Judith Burns Mc Crae, Audrey Niffenegger, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Harrison Storms, Deb Sokolow, Stas Orlovski and Chris Uphues. Curated by Karen Brown. Poster available. | ||
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Mark Arctander: Surveillence February 8 - March 24, 2007 Rotunda Gallery 10-year retrospective of Chicago artist Mark Arctander’s work with found objects. Arctander humorously manipulates ordinary objects through contextual change to deliver an out-of-the-ordinary visual experience and new insight. Brochure available. | ||
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The Heart of Africa January 16 - March 9, 2007 Hall Case Galleries and North Gallery Provides a glimpse of the Congo through palm fiber (raffia) presentation mats and clothing, ceremonial knives and carved wooden boxes, cups, and ancestral figures. Presented in collaboration with the NIU Antropology Museum. |
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Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood is Not a Class Privilege in America January 16 - February 17, 2007 South Gallery Sixty images by 47 of the leading documentary photographers in the United States. Beggars and Choosers offers a strong, positive image of mothers that society may not deem quite “proper” - women considered by some to be too young, too poor, too gay, too disabled, too non-white or too foreign. Curated by Rickie Solinger and traveled by Wake Up Arts, this exhibition aims to stimulate new thinking and conversation about motherhood, public policy, media, and politics as well as to present an outstanding set of photographs. | |||
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From Heaven to Earth: A Ritual to the 37 Nats September 21 - December 16, 2006 North Gallery The first American exhibition devoted to the popular Burmese Buddhist ceremony, the “Ritual to the Thirty Seven Nats” will explore the history and practice of this intriguing cultural phenomenon through a display of seventeen Protector Spirit statues on loan from the Burma Art Collection at NIU. Programming in conjunction with the Center for Burma Studies. | ||
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Blue Sky, Black Earth: Meditations on the Meeting of Sky and Land Oct. 26 - Dec. 16, 2006 Rotunda and Hallway Case Galleries Group exhibition of abstract and representational Illinois landscapes which focus formally and metaphysically on the interplay of big sky and flat land. Artists include: Anya Antonovych, Jay Paul Bell, James D. Butler, Michael Dubina, Ulrich Eigner, Harold Gregor, Michael Johnson, Andrew John Liccardo, Jeffery A. Little, Charlotte Rollman, Alice Vrazo-Delzer and James Winn. Artists’ journals & sketches, working drawings and photos, and plein air studies were also on display. Co-curated with Douglas Johnson, Executive Director of the McLean County Art Center in Bloomington, IL, where the exhibit traveled in early 2007. Brochure available. | ||
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Location Uncertain August 29 - November 18, 2006 South Galleries 9 Contemporary Berlin and Chicago artists follow up on an initial international collaborative exchange called “Location Matters” exhibited at Mbassy Gallery in Berlin in January, 2006. In this second exhibition venue, the artists are temporarily (and temporally) brought together again to share their ongoing dialogue, collaborative strategies, and imposed limits and directives for creating new work “together” across cultural and geographical spaces. Artists include Berliners Jan Bauer, Werner Gasser, Helga Natz, Karina Nimmerfall and Daniela von Nayhauss, and Chicagoans Karen Lebergott, Tom Denlinger, Michael Piazza, and Mary Patten. Catalogue available. There was a parallel exhibition at Lake Forest College from Aug. 31 - October 8, 2006; and another at Beacon Street Gallery in Chicago during the month of September. | |||
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Sordid and Sacred: Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings from the John Villarino Collection August 29 - October 14, 2006 Rotunda Gallery Rarely-seen series of etchings by the seventeenth-century Dutch master unrivaled in his keen and sensitive observations of humanity. Organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Catalogue available. | ||||
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Regional Illinois Potters I: Northwest August 28 - September 30, 2006 Hall Case Galleries First exhibition in an annual series highlighting contemporary ceramics from various regions in Illinois. Artists included Ken Bichell and Stephanie O’Shaughnessy of the Menominee Wood Kiln, Charles Fach, Kent Henderson, Bill Farrell and Delores Fortuna of Galena, and Paul Eshelman and Adrienne Seagraves of Elizabeth, Illinois. | |||
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Contents of the DeKalb Centennial Time Capsule May 24 - through August 11, 2006 Hall Case Galleries Buried during DeKalb's Centennial in 1956 and recently exhumed for the Sesquicentennial, the time capsule is a treasure trove of photographs and artifacts of life in the mid-twentieth century. | |||
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POP! Contemporary Textiles influenced by Popular Culture March 28 - May 13, 2006 South Galleries |
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| Group exhibition featuring humorous, poignant and critical works by Susie Brandt, Judith Brotman, Amanda Browder, Bonnie Ward Klehr, Jeff Hand, Christine LoFaso, Ai Kijima, Mark Newport, and Karen Reimer. Curated by Christine LoFaso, Associate Professor, Fine Arts Studio, Fiber, NIU. Catalogue essay by Shannon Stratton. |
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Shot in the Arm March 21 - May 13, 2006 North Gallery |
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| Exciting new additions to the NIU Art Museum collection of original prints include works by Endi Poskovic, Bill Fick, Michael Ferris, Tom Huck and Karla Hackenmiller, all artists who have participated in recent years as Visiting Artists at the NIU School of Art Printmaking Department. |
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Ars Libris March 21 - May 13, 2006 Hallway Gallery Artist's books from the collection of Adrian R. Tio |
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roll-run-hit-run-roll-tick-tick- January 17 - May 13, 2006 Rotunda Gallery |
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| The sculpture/sound exhibition by Korean-born Chicago artist Jin Soo Kim will return to Illinois after having traveled the country for three years. Fittingly, the work deals with travel and displacement. The installation, consisting of eight steel tunnels and an audio element featuring layered sounds of ticking clocks, breaking light bulbs and clanging plates from railroad tracks, emphasizes the physical and psychological nature of travel, experience and memory. A Brochure is available with an essay by Dominic Molon. The DeKalb venue changed monthly with the additional installation of workshop creations exploring similar themes. |
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February 2006 Workshop participants: Stephanie Bruton Jen Evans Yen-Hua Lee T.J. Lemansky April Macatangay Dan Mattingly Sherry Patterson Daniel Prow Michelle Ramirez John F. Regan Mike Taylor |
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| March 2006 workshop participants: Christine Aguirre Timothy Dwyer Kristin Kleckler Mike Knierim Neen Koebbe Yen-Hua Lee April Macatangay Marcie Oakes Gwen Rodig-Brown Jess Witte |
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| April 2006 workshop paricipants: Melissa Bruck Kristine Chisamore Mike Knierim Yen-Hua Lee April Macatangay Bianca McGraw Rosie Presti Scott Stier Kimberly Strom |
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Joan Truckenbrod: Estuarine Spaces South Galleries January 17 - March 11, 2006 |
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A solo show of video and multimedia installations by noted Illinois artist and leading pioneer of digital art, Joan Truckenbrod. Her work probes the threshold between the physical world and the virtual world in an immersive undulating manner that speaks of ritual and transformation. |
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necessary angel North Gallery January 17 - March 11, 2006 |
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A selection of hand-printed broadsides from the Chicago Poetry Center featuring original visual art and previously unpublished poems. |
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Bob Emser: Shadow Drawing Rotunda and North Galleries August 22 - December 10, 2005 |
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| Exhibition of recent work by internationally known Illinois sculptor Bob Emser. Creating both small scale and large outdoor sculpture, Emser deals with each piece's internal structure and how that structure is supported or becomes visible on the exterior. |
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Confessions of a Dadaist: The Era of Existence, 1979-2005, Part II: The Imagery of Helene Smith-Romer South Galleries August 22 - December 10, 2005: |
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| This mid-career retrospective of Chicago artist Helene Smith-Romer expands and investigates the Dadaist approach to life from a contemporary feminist perspective. In her collages, artist's books, writings, and as curator of the 'I Due Art 4 You Museum', she humorously explores and evolves the traditional Dadaist ideology and employment of technology. Smith-Romer challenges both the visual surface and the viewer as she simultaneously orchestrates and balances elements of incongruity from the unconscious versus conscious, chaos versus order, the copy versus the original, found objects versus mass produced items, fabrication versus truth, and chance compared to randomness. Catalogue with essays by Janina Ciezadlo and James Hugunin. |
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(Super Spatial): An installation by Thomas Skomski Rotunda Gallery March 31 - May 14, 2005 |
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| Skomski's artistic involvement with water began as an undergraduate student when he placed sculptural forms into the lagoon at Northern Illinois University. Since then he has expanded his investigations to include the unique properties of water such as light refraction and fluid dynamics. His current work examines the presence of wave action in all phenomena. | ||||
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Unseen/Unnoticed/Unspoken: Duplicity of Word and Image North Gallery March 31 - May 14, 2005 |
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Recently back from a Fulbright Scholarship in Estonia, Illinois artist and NIU alum Rebecca Keller exhibited both the assemblages she created there and new work inspired by her trip. |
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The World of Burmese Buddhism South Galleries October 23, 2004 - May 14, 2005 |
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Curated by Catherine Raymond, Director of the Center for Burma Studies at NIU, this exhibition of Buddhist artifacts dating from the eleventh through twentieth centuries will explore facets of Burmese Buddhist Art and religious practice. |
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Misleading Trails Rotunda and North Galleries January 18 - March 13, 2005 |
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Artists Enrique Chagoya, Xiaoze Xie, Hai Bo, Dan Mills, Hong Hao, Ai Weiwei and Vernon Fisher create provocative art filled with layered images and information, leading the viewer away from their initial response, and down numerous trails full of unexpected meanings. This exhibition was organized by the artists, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Bejing, and the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University. |
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Highlights from the Permanent Collection Rotunda and North Galleries Oct 18 - Dec 12, 2004 |
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This exhibition showcased some of the finest pieces in the NIU Art Museum collection including prints by "old masters" such as Durer, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Daumier and Vuillard, tentieth century artists like Josef Albers, Karel Appel, Hans Bellmer, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, Joan Miro, Henry Moore and Man Ray; Chicago favorites like Ed Paschke, Robert Lostutter, Phyllis Bramson and Ivan Albright, and contempoary figures such as Ida Applebroog, Robert Arneson, James Rosenquist, David Salle and Donald Sultan. |
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View exhibits in the former Altgeld space, originally an auditorium on the second floor.