On display in the Betty and Art Robins Group Gallery
May 2 - June 8
Reception: May 12, 6 - 8 pm (free and open to the public)
Texture can show up in artworks via medium, technique, subject matter, movement, perspective, and more. We work with people every day to NOT touch artwork in the gallery but we challenge you to make work that invites the viewer to reach out and touch. As always, artists get to choose what to make… SO! Will your work elicit the forbidden touch? Will you allow the viewer to touch your work? Or will you make your work enticing but NOT allow visitors to touch? You get to choose!
Touch is a juried show open to all artists 16+ years old, all media welcome.
Thank you to juror Laura Ursprung Nerling, for careful consideration when creating this show.
Juror Statement
Touch refers to many aspects of art from its medium—the actual physicality and texture of an object, to the concept—the idea of touching, not touching, or the visual illusion of texture. In jurying Touch, I sought to bring the potential breadth of that long-taught formal element to a broader and more inclusive definition. I looked for images and objects that implied texture through technique, and thus represented an illusion to the idea of touch; or for artworks that invited the viewer to touch, to feel, and experience the physicality of texture; but I also wanted to incorporate artworks that explored the concept of what touch means, whether by inviting you to make your own mark through touch or prohibiting you from experiencing the physicalness of the object itself; and lastly, I was intrigued by objects and artworks that played with shifts in texture—thereby forcing the viewer to acknowledge the impact texture can have on the desire to feel.
Congratulations to all of the ribbon winners!
1st place: Maggie Jackman, "Tufted Lemons" & "Tufted Peaches"
2nd place: Richard Hoeppner, "Puzzle Car" & "Puzzle Truck"
3rd place: Erik Slatinsky, "One Cheek Meditation Seat"
Honorable mentions:
Michelle Marcum, "Fur Framed Zebracorn" & "Fur Framed Cheetacorn"
Diana Hallett, "Sequoia"
Andrew Ludwig, "Pitcher" & "Jar"
Alisha Morton, "Hands Off"
