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Venue: Parkland Art Gallery

Address: 2400 W. Bradley Ave. , Champaign

Cost: Free

Entry Age: all

posted 1:06 pm Oct 28
modified 5:24 pm Nov 18

CHAMPAIGN--“Indirect Objects: Captured Identities” will be on display from Monday, November 30 through Saturday, February 6 at the Parkland Art Gallery. An artists’ reception on Thursday, December 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gallery lounge will feature a gallery talk at 7 p.m. by Springfield artist Elizabeth Murphy Thomas and music by the Valentine All-Stars. Refreshments will be provided.

The exhibition includes four artists from around the country, including Stafford Hiroshi Smith (Lewisburg, PA), Judith Sol-Dyess (Chicago, IL), Elizabeth Murphy Thomas (Springfield, IL), and Vaughn Wascovich (Commerce, TX). Inherent in the works is the process of documenting how we choose to identify ourselves through clothes, environment and the architecture that we inhabit. What links these contemporary photographers together is they have a similar interest in using the camera as a lens of capturing constructed identities that we attribute to our character and being able to interpret social culture in a variety of environments.

Included are artists with a contemporary approach, artists who are working with issues in their own time frame to engage the world in which they live. Smith’s photos revolve around interpersonal relationships within a family. His latest work reveals an examination of American families and seeks to redefine the family portrait. Wascovich hones in on the physical landscape of higher education. The academic environment is a place for searching for knowledge unhampered by commercial responsibility and full of opportunity. Photographing these locations without the students and faculty gives pause. The emptiness and captured light augment a subtle beauty and hopefulness.

Thomas’s photos document Alzheimer’s patients and their shadowboxes. Their artwork allows the viewer to understand the impact of this disease more than any clinical diagnosis ever could. In another series, Thomas explores how the objects we buy make statements about us. She visually records the backs of cars covered with bumper stickers as portraits of their prospective owners. Judith Sol-Dyess takes into account the residents of the Lawson House YMCA in Chicago, which houses primarily low-income and formerly homeless individuals.

Indirect Objects: Captured Identities
Monday, November 30 – Saturday, February 6, 2010
Reception: December 3, 6-8 p.m.; Gallery Talk at 7 p.m.,
music by the Valentine All-Stars
Artists include: Stafford Hiroshi Smith, Judith Sol-Dyess, Liz Murphy Thomas, and Vaughn Wascovich.
Exhibition closed 3 pm December 23 through January 3 for Holiday Break and on January 18 on honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

New gallery exhibition to include contemporary photography!

The exhibit’s coordinating artist lecture series continues this semester, with two separate lectures. Elizabeth Murphy Thomas will be speaking on Thursday, December 3 at 1 p.m. in the gallery. She will provide an in-depth discussion about her work and experience as an artist. Thomas, an assistant professor of Graphic Design/Digital Media at the University of Illinois at Springfield, received her MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003 and has exhibited her work at numerous art venues including Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Las Angeles; Fox Gallery, Baltimore, MD; and Lush Gallery, Gainesville, FL among others.

Lisa Costello, Director of Parkland Art Gallery, will also give an informal lecture to discuss various aspects of the exhibition. This lecture will be in the Gallery on Wednesday, January 27 at 3 p.m.

The Parkland Art Gallery’s fall hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 12 noon to 2 p.m. Programs at the Parkland Art Gallery are partially supported by Parkland College Student Activities and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. All events in the handicapped accessible gallery are free and open to the public. For more information, call 217/351-2485.

Programs and exhibitions at the Parkland Art Gallery are partially supported by Parkland College Student Activities and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Parkland is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution. For accommodation, call 217/351-2551.

Parkland Art Gallery is located at 2400 West Bradley Avenue, Champaign, Illinois. For more information please call the gallery office at 217/351-2485 or visit our website at www.parkland.edu/gallery. Gallery Hours are Monday–Friday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Monday–Thursday, 6 - 8 p.m., and Saturday, 12 noon - 2 p.m.

To find the gallery when classes are in session, we suggest using the M6 parking lot on the north corner of the campus. Enter through any door and follow the ramps uphill to the highest point of the first floor, where the gallery is located. The gallery windows overlook the outdoor fountain area.