BLANDEN ART MUSEUM

Delineations of Structure: The Grid, Architecture and Perspective 

Selections from the Permanent Collection 

West Gallery

January - December 30, 2023

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About the Exhibit

"We shape our buildings - thereafter, they shape us."

                                                                              - Winston Churchill. 

The need to build is a paramount requirement, a fundamental need to survive; it is also about the drive to leave a legacy of beauty and order. Structures of all shapes and sizes are signatures of culture and society. Like frozen music in space, they play for the viewer a song of age, the hopes of a people, and a    record of dreams. They are an art and a requirement. It is through the lens of a culture's buildings and dwellings that helps form historical understanding. Architecture is one way that a society can express itself, presenting a likeness to the world. The foundation of order and beauty that stand the test of time      structures define a longing for understanding.     

This exhibit brings together objects and works of art from the collection that     directly reflect these delineations in conjunction with more abstract and   conceptual depictions of structures and the grid. The artwork on display covers multiple periods, cultures, and styles. It is a testament to the excellent and rich assortment contained in the collection. Architectural history is an evolving account of human energy that spans centuries reaching back to ancient times, providing a global perspective. The construction of buildings, structures, and grids is more than the carving of stone or the placement of glass. It is about    understanding something bigger than ourselves, our place in the universe. Expressions of this understanding are witnessed through drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs of structures. Artists can reflect the spirit of time locked forever through the talent of the hand and the eye.    

Through the interaction of realistic depictions, abstractions, and conceptual forms, viewers can survey how the grid, architecture, and perspective have shaped our understanding of history, culture, and society. Structures are physical evidence of human change. The art inspired by this evidence reflects a          perspective boundary and is a witness to history.   

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Out of Place

Taylor Laufersweiler 

Second Floor Gallery

Aug 13 - September 17, 2022

Artist Statement:

As a site for perspectival and spatial transformation, my work exists within a realm where vulnerability and contradiction form one’s experience. Considering the tec-tonic duality of entropy, and within that queerness, these drawn and structural cues of queering space lead to questioning values that lie at the core of human experi-ence: trust, positioning, understanding, and navigation. Further complicating my navigation of the pictorial space are incongruous color choices and intrusive di-mensional elements, further impeding my ability to make sense of these images. Utilizing architecture as a starting point, doors, windows, staircases and other points of spatial transition become visual references to deeper transformations. These painted transformations are about queering space. I play with scale, light, spatial understanding, and form; contradictions lead to vulnerability, and as your eyes move around the surface these compositions arise and then collapse. This experience is not unlike the experience of being a queer person. Unexpected boundaries appear at the last moment, some experiences are visible but not accessible. As such, the viewer must become comfortable with continually reorienting their gaze, as opposed to being stable. The seeming chaos of the painting’s compositions feed into how the viewer navigates them, and further conveys the discomfort of being limited by constant reorientation, or code-switching. However, the play between visual expectation and the actual composition is hardly chaotic; it is an account of real, lived experience.

Bio:

Taylor Laufersweiler (b. 1994, Fort Dodge, Iowa) works primarily through drawing, painting and installation, often bridging the three together. His work attempts to queer space and perception in order to reorient through disorientation. Disorientation lies at the core of the work as a means to navigate the sensation of being, and feeling, out of place. Taylor’s work places himself within an imagined space made up of lines, symbols, and passageways. The space becomes slanted and collapsed as a means to explore ideas of entropy in relation to identity. Entropy that, supersedes the definition of order to disorder, confronting and questioning his own sense of direction, locating him within a liminal space. Liminal space, the time between what was and what is — a place of transition, a place of not knowing.

STILL STANDING

Mark True 

East Gallery

June 4 - August 27, 2022

Artist Statement:

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I use photography to translate the world around me into a story worth telling. As a trained  journalist and experienced marketer, I have always tried to understand a subject’s essence, document it and communicate it to others in a way that engages, challenges and informs.

In the past, I’ve worked with acrylics on canvas and built assemblages with found objects. Only through the lens of a camera, however, am I able to accurately represent the subject accurately, selectively compose its placement in its environment and edit to create art that tells a compelling story.

While I can be found photographing the streets of Midwest cities, I’m more naturally drawn to the rural America and the people, architecture and landscapes that the rest of us often drive right by. I work in color and black and white, equally at home capturing the breadth of the Iowa landscape or an abstract slice of it. Whether people, animals or structures, much of my work features a simple, graphic composition that isolates the subject in its larger, contextual    environment. Other images are intimately cropped to draw the viewer into the subject’s world or create an abstract perspective.

I often present my images on canvases, without frames, so the subject matter is not impeded by the unnatural barrier of a frame. Big and expansive as the countryside itself.

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Bio:

Mark True was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but he grew up in Iowa. He was educated in journalism at Iowa State University and has been a professional writer, graphic designer, and brand consultant for more than 30 years. 

True’s introduction to art included acrylics and assemblages made of found objects in the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg, but today, he  uses photography to create regionalist art inspired by Grant Wood, Charles Sheeler, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Based in Carlisle, Iowa, True’s work captures the rural landscapes and small towns of Iowa and the Midwest. His work has been juried into group shows at the Polk County Heritage Gallery and the Ankeny Art Center, and he was featured in a solo show at the Ankeny Art Center in 2018. 

He is the founder and current president of the North River Arts  Council, a non-profit organization creating a place for artists and the arts in Warren County, Iowa.

Upcoming!

Additional information forthcoming for the following:

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• Mary Muller - "Garden Walk" East Gallery 

  • September 10 - January 21,2023​

• Steven Maeck- "Iron Works"  Second Floor Gallery                               

  • October 1 - December 17, 2022

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