See Glass Through Glass at the Racine Art Museum

Sept. 1, 2009 - PRLog -- The Racine Art Museum has commissioned internationally acclaimed glass artist Therman Statom to create a new exhibition for its Windows on Fifth Gallery. The year-long exhibition, "Therman Statom: Outside the Box" features lively painted glass arrangements of unusual objects brought together to encourage viewers to create their own imaginative connections. For the first time since its opening, RAM has allowed an artist to alter its space in the windows. Statom has painted on the frosted glass walls that divide the window space from the main first floor gallery. The painted glass walls rest behind the installation giving the effect that RAM's entire window space is one large Statom box.

Statom titled the work "The Four Seasons" and the installation includes elements that suggest aspects of each season-frosty areas of glass, glowing colors from nature, and floral imagery, vessels that suggest growing pods and buds. His title also refers to the fact that the installation will be on display through July 26, 2010. Statom has used glass boxes filled with collaged elements, as well as neon light tubes and mirrored surfaces. The mirrors-including a large-scale chair that is eight feet tall-reflect images from the street and sidewalk back to the viewer, bringing the outdoors into the composition.

Using everyday window glass and silicone, Statom creates square and rectangular shadowboxes,  as well as commonplace items such as houses, chairs and ladders. He fills these boxes with collages of found and fabricated objects. Statom then actively paints the interiors of these boxes with bright colors before sealing them. Statom shows these cases either separately, hanging on walls or stacked to form groupings of arrangements that the viewer walks around.

Throughout his career, Statom has inspired audiences to see glass as a medium for sculpture by using it to create large-scale sculptures and room-sized installations. His mixed media installations and sculptural groupings combine painting, sculpture and architecture in enthusiastic and intellectually playful arrangements. Statom uses the materials in ways that are not conventionally craftsman-like in their assemblage.

Statom has pushed the boundaries of his medium by challenging his audience to look at glass in new and interesting ways. He is a pioneer in the use of glass as a material for sculpture and room-size installation art. Statom's works can be found in major museum collections across the US, including: the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Toledo Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art (Atlanta), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Racine Art Museum.

Therman Statom will return to the museum in March 2010 to modify the exhibition and create a fresh new experience.

This exhibition is made possible by: Presenting Sponsors - Karen Johnson Boyd and William B. Boyd, RAM Society Members, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., The Hearst Foundation, Inc., and Windgate Charitable Foundation; Gold Sponsors - Racine United Arts Fund and Wisconsin Arts Board; Silver Sponsors - Helen Bader Foundation, Racine Community Foundation, Inc., and Walker Forge, Inc.; Bronze Sponsors - Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, Midwest Contemporary Glass Art Group, and Target

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Together, the two campuses of the Racine Art Museum, RAM in downtown Racine at 441 Main Street and the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts at 2519 Northwestern Avenue, seek to elevate the stature of contemporary crafts to that of fine art by exhibiting significant works in craft media with painting, sculpture and photography, while providing outstanding educational art programming.

Docent led contemporary craft and architectural tours of the museums are available. Both campuses of the Racine Art Museum, are open to the public Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, and are closed Mondays, Federal holidays and Easter. RAM is open Sunday Noon - 5:00 pm, while Wustum is closed Sundays. An admission fee of $5 for adults, with reduced fees for students and seniors, applies at RAM. Admission to Wustum is free. Members are always admitted without charge to either campus.