From Wasteful to Tasteful at the Racine Art Museum

"Matt Eskuche: Agristocracy" uses the colour, line, form, and shear abundance of food and beverage packaging as the catalyst to create high end design within the space of RAM's Windows ofn Fifth Gallery.
By: Racine Art Museum
 
July 27, 2010 - PRLog -- The Racine Art Museum [http://www.ramart.org] commissioned internationally recognized glass artist Matt Eskuche to create a new exhibition for its Windows on Fifth Gallery. Open August 6, 2010 through July 24, 2011, Matt Eskuche: Agristocracy [http://ramart.org/ram/Agristocracy.html] uses the colour, line, form, and shear abundance of food and beverage packaging as the catalyst to create high end design within the space of RAM's windows. In recent years, Eskuche has carefully recreated the trash in his installations using a variety of media, but has primarily relied on Italian glass working traditions in order to produce a startlingly realistic body of work.

Impressed by the global impact of consumerism on economies, environments, and land and humanitarian rights, Eskuche has used flameworked glass, paper, cardboard and other materials to create soda bottles, fast food packaging, and other items commonly seen as nothing more than "trash." He recognizes and plays off of the idea that he is recreating objects of mass production out of an unexpected material, by hand and with great labor and skill. In addition, Eskuche studies the design and structure of food packaging and theoretically explores how those factors contribute to how we respond to the products and their aesthetic.

"Agristocracy" highlights consumptive waste and its former life as a corporately advertised product. Eskuche states, "...from the 90s graphic design of a paper cup that boasts, 'I am absolutely average!' to the loud wrappings of the candy and sodas that beg for your attention from the convenience store aisles, their life cycles keep me grossly intrigued."

For his Windows at RAM installation, Eskuche has expanded the scale and scope of his work-not only assembling the most grandiose tableaux of his trash glass yet, he is also exaggerating details of individual objects and turning them into large-scale compositions of paint, plastic, and light. With this new element of his work, Eskuche challenges how we understand the role of "consumer waste" in our lives-finding beauty in unexpected places and encouraging us to consider the complex web that links preciousness, luxury, consumption, politics, and the environment.

Eskuche was originally trained as a metalsmith and began flameworking glass in 1998. He has demonstrated and exhibited his craft throughout the U.S. as well as abroad in Japan and Australia. His work can be found in the permanent collections of several museums including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Racine Art Museum.

On Friday, August 6 at 7:00 pm, Eskuche will guide visitors through a behind-the-scenes tour of "Agristocracy" with RAM Curator of Exhibitions Lena Vigna. This is during First Friday in downtown Racine when RAM offers free admission 10:00 am to 9:00 pm along with a free hands-on art event from 4:00 to 8:00 pm. In addition, RAM's Awesome Art Sale will offer both the novice and the experienced art collector the opportunity to purchase original, museum-quality artwork by well-known artists at affordable prices.

Matt Eskuche will return to the museum in March 2011 to modify the exhibition and create a fresh new experience.

The presentation of this exhibition at the Racine Art Museum was 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 - National Endowment for the Arts, Racine United Arts Fund, The Helen Bader Foundation, The Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, and Wisconsin Arts Board; Silver Sponsors - Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation and Real Racine; Bronze Sponsors - E.C. Styberg Foundation, Inc., Midwest Contemporary Glass Art Group, and Target.

# # #

The Racine Art Museum is one of North America's most significant contemporary craft museums. Its focus is on work from internationally recognized artists in ceramics, fibers, glass, metals and wood, as well as painting, sculpture and works on paper.
End
Source:Racine Art Museum
Email:***@ramart.org Email Verified
Zip:53401
Tags:Racine Art, Contemporary Glass, Contemporary Craft, Eskuche, Wi Museum, Milwaukee Art, Chicago Art, Craft Museum, Vigna
Industry:Arts, Non-profit
Location:Wisconsin - United States
Account Email Address Verified     Account Phone Number Verified     Disclaimer     Report Abuse
RAM - Racine Art Museum News
Trending
Most Viewed
Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share