By Sarah McMillin, Asst. Living & Arts Editor
The Lore Degenstein Art Gallery opened a new exhibition entitled “Ordinary Extraordinary: Collage in America” on April 20.
The exhibit features a varied selection of mixed media pieces by Matthew Cusick, Jim Gaylord, Addie Herder, Lisa Hoke, Don Joint, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Lance Letscher, Charles McGill, Salvatore Meo, Diane Samuels, Donna Sharrett, Mark Wagner and May Wilson.
The exhibition was presented in collaboration with Pavel Zoubok Fine Art and curator Pavel Zoubok spoke at the gallery opening.
“Collage is the cut, the tear, the rupture and the overlay of our contemporary culture,” Zoubok said. “It is the hybrid language of urbanity – remixed, re-contextualized, and wholly built from the fragments of daily life.”
“What began as a truly revolutionary gesture in the Cubist papier colles of Picasso and Braque – the introduction of the real into pictorial space – has, over the last hundred years, become the essence of our visual culture,” Zoubak continued. “We no longer question that any material, when filtered through the hand, heart and mind of the artist can become the stuff of high art, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.”
Zoubak continued to say that the exhibition looks at how American artists “have taken the aesthetic and conceptual values of this most vital art form and forged from them a visual language that rises.”
Junior Sydnie Chin emphasized the positivity that she took away from this exhibition.
“Unpacking and hanging all the pieces in this exhibition was so much fun and is one of my favorite shows so far,” Chin said. “My immediate impression is that this show feels like it embodies what it is to be at and work at our gallery; it’s lots of fun, sometimes it can get a little chaotic and every single aspect and person is incredibly unique.”
“There’s really something for everyone,” Chin continued. “There’s bright colors, muted and dark colors, large statement pieces and small detailed ones. I really think the best word for this show is ‘extraordinary,’ as it is so titled. There’s nothing in this show that is ordinary, and if you think there is, look a little closer.”
“Ordinary Extraordinary: Collage in America” will be on display in the Lore Degenstein Gallery until May 13.
This exhibition concludes the gallery’s 2018-19 season, which opened with David Dodge Lewis and Ephraim Rubenstein’s “The Quickening Image” in September. The exhibit was followed by the annual Figurative Drawing and Painting Exhibition in October, Sue Coe’s “Print Retrospective” in January and the annual Senior Graphic Design and Studio Arts Major Exhibition in March.
The gallery is open every day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Degenstein Campus Center, with the exception of university breaks. The exhibition is free and open to the public and the facility is wheelchair-accessible.