Collage / Assemblage: Beautiful and Strange Fragmentation explores issues of fragmentation in the context of time, place, and culture. By combining disparate materials and found objects that create new and unexpected expressive forms, both collage and assemblage offer unique and unconventional approaches to art making. Collage and Assemblage remain popular methodologies in contemporary art, and these processes offer artists nearly unlimited opportunities to develop and discover relevant arenas of meaning. Collage is an art form that involves combining and/or altering two or more 2-dimensional materials, such as photographs, published print, textiles, sheet music, candy wrappers, headstone rubbings, etc. , to create unique compositions. Assemblage is the recontextualization of 3-dimensional found objects, materials, or processes in order to construct new sculptures, either bas-relief or 3D. This exhibition feature artists from all backgrounds and experience levels who choose to explore the hidden connections and meanings in the world of found images, objects, and materials.

Exhibiting Artists: Erin Armstrong, Kina Bagovska, Summer Boezeman, Karen Breitenbach, Grant Brownlow, Betty Kirk Chernansky, Cathleen Cramer, Andre Daugavietis, Melanie Deal, Karen Hanken, Amy Hanks, Trish Happel, Addyson Hoey, Beth Jackson, Shama Kipfer-Tessler, Takako Konishi, Jamie Kost, Marvel Maring, Julia Marks, Dan McCormack, Valerie McCune, Margot McMahon, Georgie Miller, Charlene Moy, Nick Mozak, Eve Ozer, George Peterson, Gerri Rachins, Fernando Ramos, Itamar Ramot, Anna Reed, Katrina Revenaugh, Diane Holland Rickerl, Gina Lee Robbins, Joseph Royer, Lisa Sachs, Edwin Shelton, Lynne Smith, Paul Somers, Penelope Thrasher, Brian Van Camerik, Mel Watkin 

About the Curator: DAVID REIF -- Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Univ. Wyoming. BFA, Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, The Art Institute of Chicago, MFA, Sculpture, Yale Univ.; Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.; Chair and Board, Wyoming Council for the Arts, Visiting Artist: Univ. of Northern Arizona; Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Univ. of Michigan; Colorado State Univ., Ft. Collins, Centenary College of Louisiana; Univ. of Houston, TX., Wayne State Univ.

Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Image by David Reif