For its third stop in just more than a year, The Strange Life of Objects: The Art of Annette Lemieux comes to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Dec. 17, 2011-March 4, 2012 and highlights some of the artist's most prominent work over a 25 year span.
Curated by Lelia Amalfitano and Judith Hoos Fox, the exhibition made its debut and subsequent showing at the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Mass. Amalfitano recollects the lengthy process of the exhibition's assemblage and how the varying works speak to the diversity of Lemieux's thematic elements.
"Quite honestly we had been working on it for a number of years," Amalfitano said. "We really think of it as sort of a mid-career review of her work. The intentions were to clarify many of the themes in her work: memory, history, social and cultural issues and basic issues of life and death."
Raised by a single mother in Torrington, Conn., Lemieux would accompany her to antique shops, which grew her interest in recycled materials, a medium she incorporates into her work today. But her repertoire goes far beyond those resources.
| The Strange Life of Objects: The Art of Annette Lemieux Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Dec. 17, 2011- March 4, 2012 Suggested donation: $5, KIA Members, Free kiarts.org, (269) 349-7775 |
"[She will use] anything and everything," Amalfitano said. "What draws the work are the concepts. She will learn and find ways to use the media to say what she has to say. Sculpture, installations, mixed media ... she'll use whatever it takes."
The Strange Life of Objects pays homage to Lemieux's stake in the 1980s global art scene and her ability to continue to remain a significant artist today. With regular citations in contemporary art texts, Lemieux imparts her knowledge in her post as the Professor of the Practice of Studio Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
What can be viewed in The Strange Life of Objects are a diverse range of projects crafted between 1983 and 2010, respectively, and consists of books, found steel helmets, bricks and wood, among others and includes photographs, sculpture and oil on canvas, among others.
"I think one of the most important things that the viewer needs to do is go into the exhibition open to discovery and I think what they'll find is that Annette begins to tell a story in her work but although its universally based, there's room always for the viewer to add their own story and intersect with Annette," Amalfitano said. "She's not didactic in her work, she leaves room for the viewer. The conversation can really be quite rich. It's not a lecture."
Other Art Events | By Lindsay Patton-Carson
Disrupted Environment
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids
Through Dec. 30
$6-$8, members free
uica.org, (616) 454-7000
Steven Stradley is using the UICA's Vertical Project Space through the end of this month for his Disrupted Environment piece. Stradley uses charred wood fragments and suspends them in order to create a new environment. The result shows the viewer elements of collapse through the charring of the wood, as well as lending the viewer a new way to observe what we see day-to-day.
First 100 Years: Pictures of the Best Kind
Muskegon Museum of Art
Dec. 11, 2011-Jan. 29, 2012
$5-$7, members free
muskegonartmuseum.org, (231)720-2570
As part of the Muskegon Museum of Art's year-long centennial celebration, pieces from the museum's collection will be reinstalled in new ways. First 100 Years: Pictures of the Best Kind features prints, paintings, drawings, sculpture and glass acquired by the museum since 1912. The museum's most cherished works from its permanent collection will be on display, as well as others that are not frequently seen.
Small Works by Enormously Talented Artists
LaFontsee Gallery, Grand Rapids
Dec. 1-31
lafontsee.us, (616) 451-9820
In honor of the holiday season, LaFontsee Gallery is putting small, affordable works of art on display. Purchase these pieces for a holiday gift for a friend, family member or even yourself. In its fifth year, Small Works by Enormously Talented Artists will feature art of all mediums, all in miniature or small sizes. For a preview of some of the pieces on display, visit lafontsee.us.
