Martin Art Gallery
Claudia Bitran
Filters and dolphin sounds
Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College is pleased to present Filters and dolphin sounds, a solo exhibition by Claudia Bitran.
In this show the artist deepens her investigation into the semiotics of personal marketing and online sharing culture. She will present four new works: a series of backlit doodle drawings in light boxes representing instagram filters; paintings on panel depicting body fragments of young female influencers; a stop motion animation based on viral videos of animals and babies falling in slow motion; and interactive sound pieces that will submerge viewers into a mashup of fragments of today's pop hits. Collectively, the works identify and break down filters that are commonly used in online sharing dynamics. Bitran proposes a deeper look at the signs and mechanics of online sharing culture, bringing to light the real intentions behind certain types of posts and the figures of speech that connect them, as well as proposing some fictitious new ones.
Claudia Bitran (1986) is a multidisciplinary artist who works primarily in video and painting. She was born in Boston, spent most of her life in Chile, and currently lives in New York City. Bitran holds a BFA from the Universidad Catolica de Chile (2009), and an MFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design (2013). She has exhibited individually at Museo de Artes Visuales in Santiago Chile, 2016; at Roswell Museum and Art Center, in New Mexico, 2017; at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, 2018 and at Practice Gallery in Philadelphia. Group Exhibitions and Screenings include: Experimental Video Art Film Festiva at Tribeca Film Center in NY 2018, Galería Nemesio Antunez, Chile 2018, LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University 2018, Anytime Dept 2017, Saha Hadid IMAX Theater 2017, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, China 2017, The Parlour Bushwick 2016, Project 722 , Museum of Contemporary Arts Quinta Normal, at Matucana 100 Art space, among others. She has held residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Nebraska, the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program in New Mexico, and the Smack Mellon Studio Program in New York, and is currently in residence at Outpost Projects in Brooklyn. In addition to her solo exhibition here at Muhlenberg College's Martin Art Gallery, she is continuing her work on an ongoing shot-for-shot reinterpretation of Titanic by James Cameron.
Leslie Tucker
Devotionals
January 15 – March 24th
God loves us no matter what, 2018, Photo-composite printed on Endure Metallic chromogenic paper 24 x 34 in. ed. of 10
Public Reception: Feb 20, 5 - 6:30Visiting Artist Talk: March 13, 5 - 6pm in the Galleria
New York based photo artist Leslie Tucker marks her first solo exhibition at Martin Art Gallery with a series of photo-composite prints, each presenting a focused critique on our consumption-based society, specifically: What we buy, and what we buy into. Tucker carefully composes and manipulates images with various software tools, sometimes placing thousands of elements in one piece with incredible detail and precision. By meticulously sourcing, scanning and photographing these images, she is able to combine the right components to start a dialogue. As such, juxtaposition forms the foundation of her process. In an attempt to create awareness and self-reflection, the artist states: “I invite my audience to meander through my decorative tableaus to rediscover the underbelly of our humanity." From this interest in decoding human nature, she hopes to generate a better understanding of who we are, who we’ve been, and who we are becoming. To lure the viewer, Tucker translates this ‘disquieting content’ into a lustrous aesthetic showcasing an intricate appeal with jewel-toned colors and an abundance of metallic. Central to her artistic vision is a passion for consumer culture and her work as a visual brand strategist, influencing the mindset and purchasing behavior of the American public. As a visual artist, she rearranges these familiar and trustworthy images to explore her own themes. Social and economic justice, technology, the environment, race, gender, and human rights are examined through the juxtaposition of mass-produced popular-culture imagery, corroborating the artist’s belief of photography visually preserving our time. Tucker’s themes of illumination are harnessed by contemporary but unconventional technologies. Lightjet printing reproduces an image the way we see the world: the simultaneous exposure of red, green, and blue laser light (not CMYK). Additionally, the artist’s preferred surface is Endura Metallic paper, its iridescent finish and rich metallic appearance is a nod to the illumination techniques of medieval gilding. But gilded is not golden - gilded has a sense of a patina covering something else.
Leslie Tucker earned her BFA from Manhattanville College and completed post-graduate work at Parsons School of Design. Her work has been shown and recognized in various national and international exhibitions and periodicals. In 2016 and 2017, her photographic constructions were awarded first place recognition in the Fine Art Professional category of the international juried competition organized by Creative Quarterly: Journal of Art & Design. Tucker is a member artist of the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, a membership she acquired through her first place award in the LACDA international juried competition of 2008. She currently resides in Manhattan's East Village and maintains a studio space in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Liz Whitney Quisgard
Imaginary Architecture
January 15 – May 30 2019
Italianate Detail, 1980s, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 70"
Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College is pleased to present Imaginary Architecture, an exhibition of newly acquired works by Liz Whitney Quisgard. Works will be on public display in our Philip Johnson-Designed Baker Center for the Arts atrium for the duration of the spring 2019 Semester.
Born in Baltimore Maryland, Liz Whitney Quisgard’s decades-long career has resulted in a dizzying array of vibrant works in various media including sculpture, installation, fiber-art, and paint. Imaginary Architecture features five large paintings completed in the mid-1980’s, shortly after her arrival in New York City. Quisgard employs a maximalist aesthetic to depict her fanciful imagined architectural interiors, appropriately on display in our campus’ signature architectural masterpiece. Her design-forward aesthetic and obsessively meticulous color schemes evoke Twentieth-Century Modernism tinged with a Byzantine mosaic tradition. A through-line in her diverse body of work is her commitment to exploring how decorative and ornamental elements engage with physical, functional and descriptive elements.
Ms Quisgard is an American artist schooled at the Maryland Institute College of Art who currently lives and works in New York City. Her work delights people through dozens of public collections, including public art commissions in several Mid-Atlantic States, and in museum collections on two continents. Over 50 Corporate collections hold pieces of her work around the world. She has participated in hundreds of group and solo exhibitions, including recent solo exhibitions at the Bradbury Museum in Jonesboro AR, the Kingsborough Art Museum in New York, The Museum of Geometric and MADI art Museum in Dallas TX, and at Cleveland State University in Cleveland OH.
Contact: Paul M. Nicholson, Gallery Director Martin Art Gallery paulnicholson@muhlenberg.edu
Martin Art Gallery is located in our Philip Johnson designed Baker Center for the Arts, on Muhlenberg College Campus, at 2400 Chew Street, in Allentown PA 18104. Ph. (484) 664 3467. Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 8pm. All Gallery programming is Free and Open to the Public.
Works included in Imaginary Architecture have been generously donated to the College by the artist, and upon close of the exhibition will become part of Muhlenberg’s permanent collection, to be utilized for research and teaching and for the enjoyment of campus and community.
Ongoing Events and Exhibitions:
Roger Loos: Stone Koans
An exhibition of stone works by Roger Loos. Four works remain on display in the garden walk (between Trexler library and Baker Center for the Arts). Exhibition runs through 2018.
Jen Huh : God's Eyes
God's Eyes by Jen Huh will remain on extended loan and is on view in the Baker Center for the Arts Galleria through 2018. Jen Huh is showing five of her God's eyes sculptures as an overhead installation adjacent to the pitched glass atrium ceiling.
The Martin Art Gallery is open Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 8pm, and The Martin Art Gallery's Galleria Space is open Monday - Sunday, 9:00am - 11:00pm*. All of our exhibitions and programming are free and open to the public. For further information, please visit http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/aboutus/gallery, or call us at 484 664 3467