Media Contacts
Tammy Pleshek, (612) 870-3171; tpleshek@artsmia.org
Lynette Nyman, (612) 870-3173; lnyman@artsmia.org
Anne-Marie Wagener, (612) 870-3280; awagener@artsmia.org
Drawings in Light: Jantje Visscher
and Anastylosis: Drawings by Mary Griep
June 15–August 12, 2007
Minneapolis, May 11, 2007—Human interaction with the environment is the focus of an exhibition featuring new work by two Minnesota artists. Opening June 15, Drawings in Light: Jantje Visscher and Anastylosis: Drawings by Mary Griep are two exhibitions presented by the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, an artist-run curatorial department at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Griep’s wall-sized scale drawings delve into the power of sacred spaces, while Visscher’s constructions blur the lines between physical and perceptual reality. Opening events include a reception, free and open to the public, on Thursday, June 14, at 7 p.m.
In her Drawings in Light series, Visscher uses the lens of science and geometry to explore nature. In her new constructions, lights shine on strips of clear, shiny plastic. The plastic is bent, or scored, to make curved surfaces, causing shimmering reflections of light and shadow. The reflections create complex visual patterns reminiscent of undulating and repetitive forms in nature. The patterns float in front of the gallery walls, pulling the viewer into the visual recesses they create. Reaching fourteen feet high, Woven Light (2005) consists of vertical plastic strips nestled next to each other. Joined at the top, they resemble Gothic arches, or perhaps enormous wings. The patterns rendered from them make the strips nearly invisible. In Dancing Wall (2004), wave-like strips are layered upon each other. Each has its own reflection derived from bending the plastic into many copies of the same shape. Like DNA, Visscher says, each layer follows its own instructions to reproduce many times.
Griep’s Anastylosis series charts her reconstruction of eleventh- and twelfth-century religious and ceremonial spaces. For nearly seven years, Griep has made drawings of the Cathedral of Chartres in France, Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, Thatbyinnyu Temple in Myanmar, and the Palace of the Governors in Yucatan, Mexico. In her highly detailed scale drawings, Griep has dismantled and reconstructed each building on paper to gain a greater understanding of how these buildings continue to speak to those who visit them. Multi-layered and rich with her own reconstructions, the drawings are mounted on boards that contain additional interpretations of the buildings. Photographs and photocopies from Griep’s research are used generously in collage. Parts of the drawing might be torn off to show where a building has fallen apart. Bits from one drawing might appear in another work, opening visual pathways between places separated by geography, time, and purpose.
Visscher’s work is in many museums, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, the Weisman Art Museum, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Awards include grants from the Bush Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She has a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of California at Berkeley.
Griep’s work is in numerous private and museum collections, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Art Museum of Kuopio, Finland. She is an associate professor of art at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. Awards include grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Jerome Foundation. Griep has a master’s degree in liberal studies from Hamline University in St. Paul.
Drawings in Light and Anastylosis will be on view at the MIA through August 12, 2007.
About the Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), home to one of the finest encyclopedic art collections in the country, houses nearly 100,000 works of art representing more than 5,000 years of world history. Highlights of the permanent collection include European masterworks by Rembrandt, Poussin, and van Gogh; modern and contemporary painting and sculpture by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Stella, and Close; as well as internationally significant collections of prints and drawings, decorative arts, Modernist design, photographs, and Asian, African, and Native American art. General admission is always free. Some special exhibitions have a nominal admission fee. Museum hours: Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Monday closed. For more information, call (612) 870-3131 or visit www.artsmia.org.
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