In Her Spirit exhibition at Clarke
The Clarke University Quigley Gallery will feature In Her Spirit, an exhibition of artworks by six contemporary women artists. The exhibition will run Monday, August 20 through Sunday, September 20, 2018. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.
In Her Spirit has been organized in conjunction with the Dubuque Museum of Art’s Just to Live is Holy: Women Religious and a Tradition of Art, Faith, and Justice exhibition scheduled for September 22, 2018 through January 6, 2019. Clarke University faculty, alumni, and students have collaborated with the Dubuque Museum of Art to curate and plan for both exhibitions. In Her Spirit will feature contemporary artists who create work within wide-ranging spiritual and religious themes, all of which are created in dialog with the artist’s contemporary milieu or signs of the times. Both exhibitions share similar spiritual contexts or themes: Biblical, meditative, World religions, holiness in popular culture, and social action. In Her Spirit will give examples of how these significant themes persist and have relevance in today’s world.
In Her Spirit will feature artworks by Iowa artists Jane Gilmor (Cedar Rapids), Anita Jung (Iowa City), and Katie Kiley (Davenport). Additional artists include Phyllis McGibbon (Wellesley, MA), Barbara Cervenka, OP (Ann Arbor, MI), and Carol Prusa (Boca Raton, FL).
Clarke will offer related programing to compliment the In Her Spirit exhibition as a way to continue the dialog about the artwork and its spiritual context. McGibbon, a Professor of Art at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA, will exhibit an installation work, Positionings: Susanna and the Elders, and offer a lecture titled, Blind Spots and Echoes, on Wednesday, August 29 at 7 p.m. in Quigley Gallery. Her exhibition references the biblical story from the book of Daniel through the lens of art historical depictions, particularly that of Artemisia Gentileschi who identified with Susanna so memorably, and offers viewers a broader idea of empathy with a female experience. The work was first developed at the time of the Anita Hill hearings and now finds continued relevance with the #MeToo movement.
Gilmor is an Emeritus Professor of Art at Mt. Mercy University and will offer a lecture titled, The Role of Socially Engaged Art in Building Community, on Wednesday, September 26 at 7 p.m. in Jansen Music Hall. Gilmor is known for her intermedia installation work and collaborative art that engages disadvantaged communities. Her work in the Quigley exhibition will feature selections from past installations, (Un)Seen Work: Traditions and Transitions and The Architecture of Migrations.
Additional notable works in the In Her Spirit exhibition include selections from Dominican Sister Barbara Cervenka’s 1000 Cranes for Iraq and Carol Prusa’s exquisite silverpoint, graphite, titanium white, and mars black pigment with acrylic binder drawings on wood panel. Anita Jung and Katie Kiley will each exhibit prints that reference Non-Western spiritual traditions. Jung’s multimedia monoprints incorporate discarded remnants and recall travels across India, while Kiley’s etchings present figures displaying mudras, a symbolic hand gesture used in Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies.