Hunterdon Art Museum Announces 2012 Exhibition Schedule

Dec. 22, 2011 - PRLog -- HUNTERDON ART MUSEUM ANNOUNCES 2012 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Museum Celebrates 60th Year

December 21, 2011 (Clinton, NJ) – The Board of Trustees of the Hunterdon Art Museum and Executive Director Marjorie Frankel Nathanson today announced the schedule of exhibitions for the 2012 calendar year. In conjunction with the 60th Anniversary of the Museum, the exhibitions presented will continue the Museum’s tradition of heralding craft and design, featuring contemporary artists who often use common materials, transforming them into wondrous new objects and environments. In addition, the Museum’s highly- regarded education program will present a wide variety of opportunities for children and adults alike to explore the themes presented in the work shown within the walls of the Museum.

NATHAN SKILES: The Clockmaker’s Apprentice
January 22, 2012-March 25, 2012
First Floor
For his exhibition at HAM, Skiles will create and install 100 objects, including cuckoo clocks and birdhouses, fabricated entirely from foam rubber. Installed throughout the first floor gallery, the sculptures will lead the viewer to question their first impressions about materials and how they can be used. Skiles’s interest in the relationship between the creator and his object stems from a fascination with narratives such as Pinocchio and Frankenstein. As an added bonus, Skiles will respond to the unique architecture of the
building, envisioning the gallery as a grotto, and utilizing hidden spaces to engage the viewer in a hide-and-seek activity.

FRAGMENTED
Astrid Bowlby, Sebastian Rug, Christopher Skura, Ben Butler February 5, 2012 – June 3, 2012
Second Floor
There are things that exist in this world which can be easily broken into pieces; fragmented by the slightest touch. There are other things, which are built from the partnership of smaller parts and thereby fortified by their unique attachment to each other. However, even when their connection is strong, when viewed individually each piece appears as a fragmentation of the whole. Fragmented is an embodiment of repetition, detail and interconnectivity, and each of the four artists in the show take a different approach to these concepts.

ELIZABETH GILFILEN: No longer, no later
February 5, 2012 – March 25, 2012
River Gallery
Gilfilen will install four large scale abstract paintings in the intimate space of the River Gallery. As reflected in the show’s title, the paintings share a sense of urgency, a result of Gilfilen’s style of creating art that reflects her openness to chance and accident. At the same time, she is uniquely interested in spatial complexity and layering which yield results that are anything but arbitrary.

KIRSTEN HASSENFELD
April 1, 2012-June 3, 2012
First Floor
Hassenfeld creates extravagant three-dimensional pieces that resemble delicate ceramic sculpture but are often comprised entirely of paper. She has devised a visual language that draws on traditions ranging from vernacular handicrafts (such as patchwork quilts) to the dawn of computer graphics (early games such as Pong). Recently, Hassenfeld has been using found materials, often branded with images or completely devoid of personality, that pose a problem to her as she works. In choosing these sorts of materials, she is forced to try and tame them, as if they were wild creatures in need of domestication.

YEON JIN KIM: Spaceship Grocery Store
April 1, 2012 – June 3, 2012
River Gallery
With an intricately fabricated paper diorama and a video camera, Kim takes the viewer on an animated voyage through her dreams. She uses the traditional techniques of drawing
and sculpture and merges them with the contemporary technologies of film, animation and video. Her hand-drawn scroll drawings, sometimes measuring up to 300 feet long, are animated and filmed in one long take. Citing the influences of Hitchcock, Kafka and Carrol, as well as Charles Darwin, Kim infuses aliens and animals with human desires and experiences, setting them in environments that are at once familiar and completely foreign. For her show at HAM, the visitor will see both the video piece and the paper diorama from which the video was made.

MARCI MACGUFFIE
June 10, 2012 – September 9, 2012
First Floor
Marci MacGuffie's work depends on the presence and interaction of others. In her work for HAM, she will cover one wall of the first floor gallery with ferromagnetic paint, made by mixing iron filings with latex paint, and arrange countless magnets that resemble single brush marks, in a predetermined fashion. From there she will let the forces of human nature take over as viewers will be encouraged to interact with the work by moving the magnets however they wish. As the work changes over time, the original focus will disperse and new beginnings will continue to emerge through the collaboration of artist and viewer.

JOHN BISBEE
June 10, 2012-September 9, 2012
Second Floor
A sculptor living in Maine, Bisbee uses 12-inch iron spikes to create large-scale sculptures that defy the laws of physics. While each sculpture may be heavy in weight, the pieces themselves appear light and graceful. In addition to his sculptures, Bisbee will create wall pieces by fabricating a brand from his signature nails and using the brand to create an image burnt directly onto wood panels. The subtle pattern of the wood paneling will provide the perfect complement to the power of his sculptures.

GHOST OF A DREAM
June 10, 2012 – September 9, 2012 River Gallery
The artist collaborative Ghost of a Dream works with sculpture and installation to embody the essence of opulence, through construction of materials that typically end up in the trash. They mine popular culture for detritus that people use to attain their goals. Whether it is a romance novel someone reads to transport them into a dream reality or a lottery ticket that gives the possibility of a future full of decadence, Ghost of a Dream uses these remnants to re-create peoples’ hopes and aspirations.

DISPARATE ROOTS
September 23, 2012 – January 6, 2013
Second Floor
This exhibition will feature the work of contemporary artists who use collage as the primary method of making art. Through the simple act of using varied pieces of material to create a unified work of art, artists working in collage can offer multiple viewpoints and dimensions to a single idea. While each artist begins with different material roots, their construction is intertwined because of the similarity of their craft.

JAN HULING
September 23, 2012 – November 11, 2013
River Gallery
Huling creates three-dimesional works of art by covering found objects with seed beads and other objects arranged in colorful patterns, thereby camouflaging any inherent connotations they may transmit to the viewer. In each of her constructions, surface design is the key component in her extremely meticulous process. She chooses forms to motivate color schemes and iconography. Much of Huling's content is drawn from manifestations of the dreams of her youth and through this, she transports the viewers to their own joyous place through her craft.

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC
Hunterdon Art Museum 7 Lower Center Street Clinton, NJ 08809 908-735-8415 www.hunterdonartmuseum.org
HOURS Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 5pm Suggested admission $5
About the Hunterdon Art Museum
The Hunterdon Art Museum presents changing exhibitions of contemporary art and design in a nineteenth century stone mill that is on the National Register of Historic Places. In this unique setting, the Museum, a landmark regional art center since 1952, shows work by established and emerging contemporary artists and offers a dynamic schedule of art classes and workshops for children and adults.