Tall Grass Arts Association

Tall Grass Arts Association Presents “With These Hands” 2009 Sculpture Invitational

The Tall Grass Arts Association presents “With These Hands”, a compilation of sculptural works and wall images, beginning on Friday, July 10 and running through September 13. The exhibition will open with a reception and introduction of the artists on July 10 from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 367 Artists Way in DownTown Park Forest, adjacent to the Park Forest Village Hall. Admission is free.

The exhibit features the works of local and national artists. It will be the first of its kind for the Tall Grass Gallery and the first time several of these artists have exhibited in the Chicagoland area. Their combined artistic goal is to engage the viewing public in the magic of sculpture. Included in the exhibit are works by Joshua Andres, Patricia Bohannon, Louis Greer, John Hansen, Angela Lee, Michéle P. Owens, Michael Ruback, Eric Steele, Jan Stewart, Grant White and Robert R. Williams. All of the artists in the exhibit have studied and created works in other art forms but have come to prefer the “hands on” art form of sculpture. Each has experienced the joy of the combination of thoughts and three-dimensional representation of those thoughts.

Joshua Andres from Benton Harbor, Michigan, focuses on one-of-a-kind metal fabrications. His work has been displayed throughout the Midwest. Joshua says about art, "Artwork colors our lives and makes them interesting. A world without art would be a drab, dull place with no feeling. My world revolves around art, not only my art, but all art, new and old. Art documents the history of our world, not with words and quotes but with feelings and emotions. Art for me is an outlet. It is a way for me to express my feelings and emotions to the rest of the world. I work with different media to achieve different goals and to express different feelings. The art I create speaks of me and of my world. If I am to be remembered, this is what for."

Michael Ruback, a participating Chicago artist who was initially trained as a musician, states, “My work is better than I am. It is freer, more generous, more open-hearted and braver”. His realistic bronze hands provide a whimsical and dynamic viewing experience.

Robert R. Williams from Stevensville, Michigan says that his “motivation is more for the love of the process of doing, rather than a desire to say something”. Robert's life-sized, realistic three-dimensional portraits compel one to appreciate the “visual beauty” of his subjects, which may not be immediately apparent to the casual observer. Robert works in plaster, bronze and other media.

Chicago artist Angela Lee creates stoneware works, which resemble Middle Eastern design and are “recorded, etched, drawn, or painted on the surface or molded into the form itself”. Lee uses fired stoneware to capture the colors and shapes of body modification—elements that fade, distort and decay with age—in a static state. In her unique manipulation of the human body, Angela allows the subject to become the “principal embodiment of thought, feeling and emotion”.

Grant White, an artist from Ford Heights who works in bronze, exhibits regularly in the Park Forest Art Fair. One of his works was selected for the Tall Grass permanent collection.

In addition to bronze, ceramics, and plaster, other artists have included sculptures formed with steel, wood, copper, paper maché or a combination of these materials.

"With These Hands" was curated by CouSandra Armstrong, Michéle P. Owens, Donna Radcliffe and Grant White.

For additional information, call the Gallery at (708) 748-3377 or check the Tall Grass Web site at www.tallgrassarts.org. More information about participating artists and other exhibit details can be found on the Tall Grass Arts Association web site (www.tallgrassarts.org).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ALL ZONES

Tall Grass Arts Association will present an exhibit of more than seventy works by
Nikkole Huss and Heather Page called LAND MARKS: Restoration & Regeneration.
The exhibit will run from May 15 through June 27, 2009 and its opening reception
will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2009, from 7-9pm.

The show will include drawings; encaustic paintings; fiber, wood and waxworks; a
group of panels created through extensive reinterpretation and reconstruction of
earlier prints; and three wall and freestanding installations.

Nikkole Huss and Heather Page, widely-exhibited artists and college educators at Concordia University and Governors State University respectively, have taken as their inspiration for this large collection of new works both distant views of Earth – natural formations and surface identities from satellite images, and macro views – close-ups of lichen, moss, wood bark and various organic processes of growth, decay and erosion.

Nikkole’s evocative abstractions, derived from references to her earlier series of invented alphabets and topographical-map ink drawings, present images of our planet from space that have been softened, melted and reconfigured. Her works in multiple layers of wax and color in encaustic, sewn layers of fibers on felt,and mixed media installations of excavated sites suggest digitally generated or enhanced visions of Earth as well as
plant, water or land forms.

Heather’s large-scale three-dimensional houses and multi-media panels incorporate fragments of earlier prints and reference natural forms through labor-intensive layering of papers and other materials with numerous drawing, painting
and printmaking techniques. Her interests in organic and synthetic elements of the environment inform works that represent, literally and symbolically, natural processes,
the passage of time and remnants of evolution.

Both artists have arrived at expressive, personal techniques of mark-making: densely layered patches and rhythmic dabs, glowing clusters of translucent and textual patterns, and images that represent private spaces that are observed and remembered, filtered and refined.They present evidence of an ongoing transformative process through continuous growth, recreation and renewal.

LAND MARKS: Restoration and Regeneration, curated by Claudia Craemer, should
provide a wonderful opportunity to observe current trends in media and content. All students in art and design courses are encouraged to view the exhibit, and school or organization tours can be arranged.

The opening reception for LAND MARKS is Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 7 to 9 pm.
Tall Grass Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 4pm.

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Tall Grass Arts Association Presents “With These Hands” 2009 Sculpture Invitational