Eric Dean Gallery and Greg Huebner Gallery
2023-24 Exhibition Schedule
Eric Dean Gallery
Fine Arts Center | Wabash College | Monday - Friday 9-5pm | Saturday 2-6pm
Free and open to the public
Incongruous Dogs and Other Beasts
Ceramic Sculpture by Marina Kuchinski
September 13 – November 17, 2023
Gallery Reception with Artist: Wednesday, September 13, 4 – 6pm
Lunchtime Artist Lecture: Wednesday, September 13, 12pm in Korb Classroom
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Marina Kuchinski is a visual artist practicing in ceramics, mixed media and installation. She primarily hand-builds and slip-casts animal and human forms to reflect on the posthuman condition. Drawing from both historical and contemporary contexts she investigates the human experience, animal experience, and the way animals have been perceived and treated. When using animal subjects, she strives to understand animal idiosyncrasies to depict the way they communicate through their body and gaze.
Kuchinski seeks congruities that exist between animal dispositions and our own, and the way they prevail through physical form. By deconstructing differences between humans and other species; animals and objects, nature and contemporary society, she aims to discover counteractions and challenges in our existence. Postcolonial studies, animal studies, and feminist ecology inspire her to move beyond an anthropocentric point of view to explore humanity and animality that prevails within her own nature.
ARTIST BIO
Kuchinski has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad in solo and group exhibitions, including The State Museum of Pennsylvania, The Plains Art Museum, San Diego Art Institute, European Cultural and Technological Centre in Slovenia, Beit Aharon Kahana in Israel, American Museum of Ceramic Art, The International Museum of Dinnerware Design, Palmer Museum of Art, Koehnline Museum of Art, Kohler Arts Center, Weston Art Gallery, and premiere NCECA exhibitions, including the NCECA Biennial and NCECA Annual. Publications include Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Now Magazine, The Boston Globe and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Kuchinski received numerous grants and awards, including Jerome and McKnight grants, juried exhibitions, and was a guest artist at a number of colleges and universities. Kuchinski has been an artist-in-residence at the Kohler Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Chester Springs Studio, Northern Clay Center, New Harmony Clay Project, and Punch Projects. She earned her BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and her MFA from Penn State University. Kuchinski is Professor of Art at the College of DuPage and lives in the Chicago area.
Artist Website: https://marinakuchinski.com/
Pooches of Staffordshire: Class, Status, Fantasy, and Breeding in 19th Century English Pottery
Featuring works from the collection of Carol C. Rogers & C. Davies Reed ’85
September 13 – November 17, 2023
Gallery Reception: Wednesday, September 13, 4 – 6pm
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Staffordshire ceramics represent the aspirations of the English lower-middle classes toward generally unattainable higher status. Produced in the West Midlands of England, an area notable for its fertile clay and coal resources, Staffordshire ceramic factories manufactured a semblance of nobility that could be cheaply accessed by the middle classes. Because the manufacturing sites were generally unsafe and unpleasant for workers, who lacked proper rights, the rising popularity of Staffordshire ceramics ultimately had a negative impact on the health of the lower classes in the 19th century.
The royal family and noble breeds of dogs were of particular interest to manufacturers and buyers of these pieces. During the Victorian era, England pioneered the physical standard for specific dog breeds and started the first major dog shows to promote physical perfection. Even though dogs were used by lower classes for hunting and guarding, only the royal family and higher classes had the luxury of being able to own dogs for the purposes of companionship and competition, making purebred dogs a highly demanded accessory for the wealthy.
Curated by:
Alexander Barr ‘22
Isaac Caines ‘23
Ian Gale ‘22
Santiago Garcia-Rojas ‘25
Jonathan Gonzalez ‘24
Bradley Harrington ‘24
Matthew Jessup ‘25
Matthew Johnston ‘22
Carlos Lopez ‘22
Willi Melcher ‘24
AJ Miller ‘23
OPENING SPRING 2024
PROTO/DRIFT
Interactive digital works by Owen Lowery
RESTORING HOPE, RESTORING TRUST ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE 2024
January 24 – April 3, 2024
Gallery Reception with Artist: Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024
Lunchtime Artist Lecture: Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Owen Lowery (he/him) is a Pittsburgh-based interactive artist with a mission to create situations that foster and reward curiosity. He prioritizes Universal Design in his work, hoping all people—regardless of age, height, background, or accessibility situation—can engage meaningfully. He sees his art as existing within situations rather than physical artwork itself. The art comes alive in moments when curiosity takes over and deeper exploration begins. Lowery hopes people take a little of this curiosity away with them into daily life.
While in residence Lowery will transform the Eric Dean Gallery into an interactive installation space and prototyping workshop where visitors can engage with his process, their own curiosity, and aid in the development of new artworks.
ARTIST BIO
Owen has been a “Tough Artist” at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the Community Artist-in-Residence at the Currier Museum of Art, and is 2023 Maker-in-Residence at the Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville, AR. He is a Heinz Endowment Awardee, a recipient of the Burning Man Global Arts Grant, and was awarded the Consumer Involvement Award by the Cuyahoga County Mental Health Board of Cleveland, OH. His work has been featured at multiple festivals including the Currents New Media Fest in Santa Fe, True/False Film Fest in Columbia, MO, and Ingenuity Fest Cleveland. Lowery aims to create work with communities rather than for them, seeing people not as an audience, but as integral to the interactive medium itself, both as catalysts to the artwork and collaborators in its development. With this goal in mind his work is often found in less traditional art spaces such as libraries, community centers, hospitals, halfway houses, psychiatric care facilities, maker spaces, education spaces, and community-oriented programming.
Lowery will hold the position of Artist-in-Residence in the Wabash Art Department in spring 2024. He will co-teach a course that engages students in his community engaged practice and invite the Wabash and Montgomery County community to a series of public engagements (schedule TBD).
Artist Website: http://www.owenlowery.com/
2024 Senior ART Exhibition
April 19 – May 11, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, April 21, 4 – 5:30pm
This exhibition is a critical final rite of passage for the talented artists who have dedicated their academic focus to the visual arts.
Gregory J. Huebner Gallery
The Gregory J. Huebner Gallery is located in the Randolph H. Deer Fine Wing in the Fine Arts Center. The Huebner Gallery features a rotating exhibition of works from the Wabash permanent collection.
Questions and Inquiries can be sent to stradera@wabash.edu