University Park, IL—(ENEWSPF)–October 1, 2013 – The Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University is presenting “Ways of Making: Installation Art,” featuring the work of artists Barbara Hashimoto and Dana Major and the students from the Theater and Performance Studies program under the direction of Dr. Patrick Santoro, from October 21 – December 2, 2013. An artist’s reception celebrating the exhibition will be held on Wednesday, October 30, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The exhibit and the reception are free and open to the public.
The exhibition, the first in the gallery’s 2013-14 “Ways of Making” series, features two professional artists who focus on the connections between performance art and installation art in a gallery setting, as well as student work. The “Ways of Making” series of exhibitions seeks to explore the disciplines and practices taught in the art program at GSU. “Ways of Making: Installation Art” was inspired by the recent addition of Theater and Performance Studies program at GSU. GSU Art Gallery curator, Jeff Stevenson said, “I selected artists Barbara Hashimoto and Dana Major because they used installation as their primary form of expression, not just an occasional or one-off installation here and there.”
Barbara Hashimoto’s visual and performance work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, Mexico, and the Middle East. It is in more than 300 collections, including The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago (Joan Flasch Collection), The Museum of Arts and Design, and The National Museum for Women in the Arts. Working in a broad array of media, she is particularly known for both her ceramic- and paper-based work of intimate scale as well as and her large-scale installations and expansive environmental art projects embracing activism and community engagement. Barbara’s work in the exhibit is “underfoot”, has tangible and conceptual aspects to it, and activates the space.
Dana Major is a multi-media artist and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Major has been exhibiting her work since 1997 across the United States, particularly in Kentucky, Philadelphia and Chicago. Her work is informed by the look of the natural world at all scales, and ways of seeing, from microscopy to astronomy. Dana’s work in this exhibit is “overhead,” uses light, shadow and an interplay of real and imagined, which contrasts Hashimoto’s work.
The Visual Arts Gallery hours are Monday thru Thursday from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., and by appointment. For more information, call (708) 534-4021or visit www.govst.edu/gallery.
Governors State University is located at 1 University Parkway in University Park.
