Impact! - Art Exhibition

An Introduction by H. Michael Sanders

The works in this exhibition have been selected because they all share features that result in pointed commentary on cultural, economic or social issues. There is a fundamentally dynamic relationship between individuals and the societies in which they live, and artists are often at the forefront of questioning our values, intentions and actions. One of the most venerable functions of art and artists in our culture has been to draw attention to social issues that involve such topics as exploitation, economic disparity, gender, and inequality. The impact of these works resides in their persistent suggestion of our collective failings.

Morgan Craig's work focuses on the ways in which our industrial architecture functions as a marker for the value choices of our society. His surprisingly vibrant imagery of disintegrating factories and other rotting industrial structures offers an unsettling glimpse of the slowing creeping obsolescence of our consumer culture. The fact that he renders these representational works in the classical art medium of oil paint on linen only helps to underscore the their function as documents of a vanishing aspect of civilization.

Inspired by the subject matter of the regionally important economic commodity of coal, Pennsylvania artist Chris McGinnis explores the raw physicality of this substance in his visually striking works, while simultaneously suggesting its economic value and the high environmental and societal costs associated with its extraction and use.

J. Pouwels addresses, in his extended series of works collectively titled Dysfunctional Systems, the growing concerns that we face in relation to accessible and reliably pure sources of clean, safe water. The works sampled from this series that are included in our show were inspired by the continuing crisis in Flint, Michigan concerning safe water delivery systems, and the decisions made by political figures leading to this catastrophe.

Reza Refiei Rad is an Iranian artist whose photographic works have often placed him in legal jeopardy in his home country due to their subject matter. With a persistent and sensational focus on gender and feminist issues in this portfolio, Rad explores male encroachments on the personal sovereignty of women through the surprising and unsettling motifs of menstrual blood and sanitary napkins. The ironically poetic titles of these works reinforce and help articulate the visual impact of the images.

In a similar vein, Kathryn Shinko uses woven tapestries, media conventionally associated with female artists and traditionally domestic craft uses, to unexpectedly explore the violence embedded in the language used to title pornographic videos. Superimposing these decontextualized obscene phrases culled from the internet over the innocuous landscape imagery of postcards, Shinko shocks us into recognition of the debasing quality of the language in a manner that is both poetic and alarming.

The collective impact of the work in this exhibition is intended to provoke a pause in our thinking about topics we often find ourselves able to circumvent or ignore. The purpose is to stimulate dialogue between the artist and the viewer in the rarefied environment of the art gallery, and conversation with one another when we find ourselves back in our everyday environments.

Artist's Statement

Architectural structures act as both repositories and as vehicles for memory. They profoundly influence culture and identity by providing a tangible framework through which facets of society can be expressed. Consequently, I have been inspired to build a body of work dealing with how identity is influenced by the types of architectural edifices present in a given landscape, specifically post-industrial edifices. My work is not merely a method of documentation, but a sociopolitical commentary on the effects of hubris, avarice, free trade, outsourcing, deregulated capitalism, and technological obsolescence upon communities throughout the world. I believe my work provides a clear trajectory of how one might merge concept and technique into a cohesive body of work.

About the Artist

Morgan Craig is and an award-winning artist living and working in Philadelphia. He has exhibited widely throughout the North America, Europe and Australia. His recognition includes the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Recently, he was visiting artist at Australia national University.

Artist's Statement

Every culture creates its own definitions of how a family should operate, how sexuality should be expressed, and how men and women should interact. The purpose of my work is to question these definitions. I do so through media that has been conventionally associated with womanhood and domesticity: embroidery, cross-stitching, latch-hooking. I use these traditional practices to question traditional stereotypes. The works in this exhibit are from my "Vignettes" series comprising six large industrially-woven tapestries examining the language

of pornography juxtaposed with landscape imagery. By bringing together pornographic video titles appropriated from the website pornhub.com and images of majestic, noble landscapes, the artwork questions the violent and sexist qualities inherent in pornographic language, and asks how this affects our societal view of women as a whole. My goal is to question the definitions of how things “should be” and assist the viewer in revising and reaffirming their own understandings.

Artist's Statement

I'm interested in addressing the concerns we face over our access to clean, reliable water supplies. The global climate is in flux, there is clear evidence concerning the reasons for these changes, and there is much political maneuvering unrelated to the welfare of constituents. My work asks viewers to consider our roles in determining leadership and the consequences of such decisions. My current artistic exploration, Dysfunctional Systems, relates to the Flint, Michigan water crisis and more general concerns for safe and easily accessible water for all Americans.

The UC Blue Ash Art Gallery is supported by the Office of the Dean and the departments of Art & Visual Communication and Electronic Media Communications. This exhibition is curated by H. Michael Sanders and John Wolfer. Gallery publications are edited by H. Michael Sanders and designed by Michael Ziepfel. John Wolfer is gallery director.

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