Lectures by faculty from the Art History division of the NIU School of Art and Design highlight the programming surrounding the current exhibition in the NIU Art Museum, the College of Visual and Performing Arts Faculty Biennial.
From World’s Fair to National Park: Works in Progress
This talk by professor of art history Rebecca Houze considers the build environment of Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Canyon National Parks, three of the earliest to be established in the United States. As unique expressions of national identity, the parks were designed into the landscape and promoted to tourists by the transcontinental railroad companies with sophisticated programs of advertising and emerging corporate identity.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
Tuesday, January 28, noon
Reproduction Gone Awry: Doubled Mother and Estranged Child in the Work of Bharti Kher
Associate professor of art history Sarah Evans will talk about British (currently living in India) contemporary painting, sculpture and installation artist Bharti Kher in this illustrated lecture.
Bharti Kher is a celebrated Indian artist best known for painting-like works piled with thousands of colorful stick-on bindis (a decorative mark worn on the forehead). While some are traditionally circular others are sperm-shaped, setting up an army of female and male gametes (reproductive cells) for rendezvous that never happen. Evans recounts her investigation of Bharti Kher’s focus on faulty reproduction, hybrid creatures, and strange mothers.
Location: Altgeld Hall 125
Wednesday, January 29, 5 p.m.
College of Visual and Performing Arts Faculty Biennial
Rotunda and South Galleries
Shown every two years, this invitational exhibition will not only feature artwork and scholarship of current full-time and part-time faculty and teaching staff from the School of Art and Design, but work from the School of Music and School of Theatre and Dance as well. The work on display represents the activity and interests of individual members in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Featuring work and scholarship from:
- School of Art and Design:
- Art and design education: Kryssi Staikidis and Shei-Chau Wang
- Art foundations: John Siblik and Ben Stone
- Art history: Sarah Evans and Rebecca Houze
- Design and media art: Riley Brown, Amy Fleming, Aleksandra Giza, Maria Grillo, Jessica Labatte, Perrin Stamatis, Amanda VanValkenburg and Jullian Young
- Studio art: Michael Barnes, Marisol Cervantes, Billie Giese, Cynthia Hellyer-Heinz, Jim Kearns, Millicent Kennedy, Kimberly Martens, Ari Norris, Nina Rizzo, Geoffrey Todd Smith and Frank Trankina
- Teaching staff: Janelle Rae and Veronica Storc
- School of Music: Lucia Matos
- School of Theatre and Dance:
- Dance: Rich Grund
- Design and technology: Jeremy W. Floyd
- History, literature and criticism: Gibson Cima
New to the Collection
North Gallery
Featured artists include: Letterio Calapai, Jessica Gondek, Leo Limon, Ben Mahmoud, Gladys Nilsson, Rudy Pozzatti, Barbara Rossi, Paul Sierra, Gail Skudera, Clarissa Sligh, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris and Peter Van Ael.
Gallery Hours
10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Wednesday
Noon – 6 p.m. Thursday, Friday
Noon – 3 p.m. Saturday and by appointment for group tours.
Closed university holidays and between exhibitions.
