As winter rages on, the Krannert Art Museum has visions of spring in its sight as it prepares for its new spring exhibits to go on display. The new exhibits range from sculptures to multimedia pieces.
There are four main exhibits that are being put on display beginning on January 24, the main attraction being “Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls in the Artworld and Beyond.” A collection of art from an anonymous feminist collective, this exhibit focuses on feminism and social change throughout society. The expansive multimedia display also includes photos and letters to help punctuate the Guerrilla Girls’ process and what drives their motivation for social intervention. Since 1985, the Guerrilla Girls have been making an appearance in the art scene, beginning with street art to draw attention to lack of female and minority artists within the art community. From their street art comes one of their most iconic posters — titled “Do woman have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” — that displays some startling statistics regarding woman in the art world. The exhibit will be on display until April 6.
Another exhibit that will be on display this spring shows the work of Nigerian-born artist Victor Ekpuk through a collection called “Auto-Graphics: Recent Drawings by Victor Ekpuk.” This collection includes pieces from Ekpuk’s newer body of work, with collages, digital prints and large-scale drawings. These drawings are centered on the use of nsibidi, a form of written communication used in Ekpuk’s native Nigeria. Ekpuk uses compositions of nsibidi symbols in his drawings, cropping and abstracting them to create the illusion of magnification. In addition to his previous works, Ekpuk will also have one special drawing on display in the museum, drawn directly on the wall of the gallery. This exhibit will be on display through July 27.
Different from the first two exhibits, “Mandala Flea Market Mutants” is a ceramics-based exhibit by Japanese artist Yoko Inoue. This exhibit explores the relationship between mass-produced objects and their cultural value. Inoue creates ceramic pieces from what one might find in a typical urban marketplace. The pieces include a wide variety of objects ranging from Coke bottles to Hello Kitty figurines, morphed with traditional Japanese symbols to provoke new ideas and questions about globalization and its societal impact. Inoue’s installation will transform the space into street vendor booths filled with these “mutant” ceramic sculptures, with the intention of exploring the cultural process of assimilation and the effect it has on the value of objects and their symbolism as they acquire a new meaning when viewed from different cultural standpoints. This exhibit will also be on display through July 27.
The final exhibit on display this upcoming season is a complement exhibit to the previously mentioned Guerrilla Girls exhibit. “Art as Provocation” features works from the museum’s permanent collection whose artists use ideas similar to that of the Guerrilla Girls to confront social inequalities through race, gender, class and sexual orientation. This exhibit includes paintings, sculptures and other paper works created by contemporary artists and will be on display through May 4.
Aside from these exhibits, other exhibits will be going on display further into the season including collections from graduate and undergraduate students in studio art and design. As the snow around us finally begins to thaw, consider popping into the Krannert Art Museum for a look at these diverse displays of artwork.