RAM treats insects as art

A vignette from Jennifer Angus' exhibit

Three women artists with an affinity for insects have taken over the Racine Art Museum. They have filled two of the museum's big galleries with thousands of moths, bumblebees, beetles and especially cockroaches -- an installation of three related shows designed to humanize these creatures and restore our sense of awe.

There are dollhouses decorated with beeswax and insect parts, fine drawings and visual puns, and five-foot wide photographs of giant cockroaches in unusual poses. Cockroaches in costume; cockroaches being executed; cockroaches taking over our homes.

And yet ... to use a term from Bruce Pepich, museum director, there's no "ick" factor. "The artists have the wonderment of a child. For adults, they reawaken a sense of awe."

Earlier this month we posted, in the Kiosk, a story about these three interlocking exhibitions by Catherine Chalmers (cockroaches), Jennifer Angus (insect patterns) and JoAnna Poehlmann (insectopedia). Tuesday we got a sneak peak, touring the installation with Poehlmann, Pepich and RAM's new curator of exhibitions, Lena Vigna. It was eye-opening, both visually and intellectually.

But first, a disclaimer from Vigna: "No cockroaches were harmed in the making of this exhibition." That made me feel a lot better than a couple of other things she said: "The average candy bar has eight insect legs in it." And, "cockroaches can live a week without their head."

Those two last statements may help explain Pepich's observation about "the discomfort we have of sharing our homes with these insects." But as he passed one of Chalmer's wall-sized photographs he also noted that cockroaches "are much less threatening in pink."

Chalmers' installation is in three parts, featuring video and large photographs of costumed cockroach "imposters," (above), cockroach "executions," (left), and giant-appearing cockroaches inhabiting our homes (actually small dollhouses that Chalmers creates, which makes the cockroaches seem much, much bigger. The story behind Vigna's "none were harmed" disclaimer is that the roaches are chilled, embellished, posed for their closeups, and then thawed out of hibernation. Any adornment then falls off and the cockroaches are, we are assured, none the worse for wear. But whether you want to put one of Chalmers' large photos in your dining room may be another story. (In my case, no need to ask the wife; I already know the answer.)

Poehlmann explained the background of some of her artwork; for example, a miniature book with four beetles created after John Lennon was killed -- hence its title: Homage to the Beatles. She likes "appropriating " other artwork, and adding bugs, visual and verbal puns that play on the original painting. "Taking things out of their original context," is how Pepich described it.

"People give me things," Poehlmann said, pointing to a small sewing box she adorned with insects. "I keep looking for more boxes like that. I just got in the mail a box of 12 bumblebees... I was thrilled."

Lena Vigna in front of a tiny portion of Angus' patterns

Angus' patterns of insect life used the most bugs -- thousands of them mounted artistically on walls around illustrations from a Victorian children's alphabet book, and more in beeswax dioramas staged around dollhouses, like a bug funeral, bugs kissing a cow, scenes from fairy tales. The exhibit took the artist and four workmen almost a week to install. Vigna assured us that Angus "reuses" the insects as many times as she can. And Pepich noted, "A lot of these insects are not Midwestern bugs -- or we'd be doing an installation of mosquitoes, and houseflies."

Here are some quotes from the artists:

Catherine Chalmers: "Insects are a window into the unimaginable... One of the things I discovered when reading up on the American cockroach is that they are no longer found in the wild. They have existed for hundreds of millions of years, have survived several mass extinctions, yet we have succeeded in chaging how they live. Our homes are now their natural habitat. They are, in a sense, our alter-egos, the shadows that clandestinely follow in our wake.... Our hatred of the roach has perhaps grown in proportion to the boundaries we have erected between ourselves and the natural world."

Jennifer Angus: "I never liked insects; after all I grew up in Canada where most things seem to be black or brown and bite or sting. I have a revulsion for earwigs in particular... and I think junebugs are the stupidest insect I have ever seen because of the way they get stuck on their backs and buzz around trying to right themselves."

JoAnna Poehlmann (above): "My reaction to the world of insects is simply awe at the endless variety and limitless subject matter of creation and the desire to reflect what is witnessed."

RAM has scheduled many events around this All The Buzz exhibition, including kids' days, bug days, opportunities to meet with the artists, summer camp and the like. The full list is here.

RAM's Peep art winners announced; show runs thru mid-April

 Closeup of the Grand Prize Winner by Mark Trinklein

The Racine Art Museum has announced the winners of its first-ever International Peeps art competition featuring Peeps as the medium of choice.

The first in what will be an annual Easter competition drew 63 entries, which will be on display at RAM through mid-April.

And the winners are ...

First Place: Mark Trinklein for Peeps Reunion 2010, above: A sparkling, hand-blown glass Peeps Chick with Swarovski crystal eyes. Its value is over $150.

Second Place: The United Way of Racine County for Wind Peep Lighthouse: A Peeps Tote Bag, baseball cap in the Just Born Gift Box with Peeps Marshmallow and other Just Born candy brands. A value of over $100.

Third Prize: Alaina Makutz for Hopping Around Racine: A free class at the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts

Fourth Prize: Maureen and Jonathan Wolfe for Jonathan’s Garden of Peeps: A free family membership to the Racine Art Museum

Honorable Mention: Ray “Moon” Johnson for Peep-er oni Pizzas, winning an Easter bucket filled with fun stuff! Other Honorable Mentions to Barbara Conrad for He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, and Four Anonymous Peeps for Monsieur Peep Goes to the Museum.

And here are a few more that caught our eye.

 This is 'Green Bay Peep-kers by Ray 'Moon' Johnson

Peepsickle Built for Two by Cathy Kaiser

 Peeps Around the World by Amy Macemon

RAM announces 'Peep' art competition

The Racine Art Museum is challenging local artists with a new medium this Easter ... Peeps!

Artists of all ages are invited to enter artwork inspired by the marshmallow delicacies by 5 p.m. on Friday, March 26. There's no entry fee, and fun prizes will be awarded to entries based on creativity and the best use of Peeps. Artists can use any variety of Peeps.

Works will be displayed at RAM during Easter week. Entries will not be returned. All artwork should be submitted with a super brief description or title for your entry, the names of everyone who worked on the project and their ages, and a contact email address.

Now get going artists! Maybe you could create a sculpture of a bunny Peep playing a pipe and leading a line of rats. Title? The Pied Peeper.

Or you could hollow out the bellies of a bunch of Peeps, line them up in a row so you can see through them all. When you look through them, you'd see a Peep in a bathtub. Can you guess the title? Yup, Peephole.

Alright, those are terrible ideas ... come up with better ones and get your entries into RAM! Good luck to all!

See the Racine Art Museum's incredible Viola Frey exhibit tonight for free!

Viola Frey's colossal "Man Balancing Urn" sculpture at the Racine Art Museum.

The title of the Racine Art Museum's dazzling exhibit of Viola Frey's sculptures and paintings, "Bigger, Better, More" could apply to the museum itself.

The Frey exhibit, which features the artist's massive, beautiful sculptures, is a remarkable accomplishment for RAM and a sign of the museum's emergence as a significant voice in the art world. Museum staff worked for five years to assemble the first show of Frey's works since the world-renown artist died in 2004.

RAM staff worked with the Gardiner Museum in Toronto to create the show.

RAM's former curator Davira S. Taragin, reviewed Frey's body of work and selected the objects for the 22-piece exhibit on display in Racine through Aug. 16. The Gardiner, which specializes in ceramics, handled the logistics of moving Frey's enormous pieces and made arrangements for an international tour of the works.

About Frey

Viola Frey was a prodigious artist who worked for most of her life in Oakland, Calif. While she created in many forms, she is best known for her ceramic sculptures, some of which are 12-feet tall. Walking through the RAM exhibit, you sense Frey's playful imagination and incredible ability to engineer and craft huge works of art. Part of the fun is wondering how in the world Frey worked on such a large scale (look carefully and you can see how the sculptures split into pieces), and then how the museum staff managed to rebuild the pieces in its second-story gallery.

Bruce Pepich, executive director of RAM, said the weight of Frey's sculptures was a serious concern. The museum worked with the contractor that transformed the former bank building into the gallery to calculate weight loads and ensure the wood floor wouldn't collapse when Frey's pieces were put into place. "We didn't want to end up with a sculpture in our basement," Pepich said. (The museum used layers of wood to dissipate the sculptures' weight.)

The exhibit is somewhat surprising for RAM because the museum is dedicated to showing crafts, not necessarily the ceramics Frey is known for. But Pepich said the exhibit fit perfectly with RAM's mission to broaden and challenge people's thinking on what is art - a big topic in craft art, which some belittle as less of a fine art than painting.

Pepich said he believes in a century there will be no distinction in the art world between painters or sculptors who worked in glass, metal or ceramics. "In 100 years, they'll say artists worked in different materials, but talked about the same ideas," he said.

Frey is a good example because she worked in many art forms. Along with her sculptures, the Frey exhibit includes oil paintings and a watercolor. RAM's notes on the exhibit say: "Frey was an integral voice in linking craft media with fine art."

Frey's painting, "Studio View - Man in the Doorway," at RAM. The painting is a portrait of Frey's studio, where she collected knicknacks and other kitsch items that inspired her work.

RAM's Frey exhibit is already garnering international attention. The show travels to Toronto in September and then to the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. It ends in Little Rock, Ark.

The show, which opened in April, is one of RAM's most significant exhibits since opening in 2003 and is expected to draw about 6,000 people to the museum, including many from Chicago and Milwaukee.

Pepich said the exhibit, which will travel with the Racine Art Museum name on it, helps the museum fulfill its mission to spread a positive image of Racine through art. "This show will be like a billboard in New York City for 18 months," Pepich said. "Thousands and thousands of people will see it and get a positive image of Racine."

Before the exhibit leaves, you still have a chance to see it here. Frey's work will be on display at RAM, 441 Main St., through Aug. 16. You can see it free tonight at First Fridays in Downtown Racine. More on Viola Frey HERE.

Frey's "Double Self" are two life-sized sculptures of herself. Frey was shorter than 5-feet tall, but still created ceramic figures 12-feet tall in height. Frey, born to a family of grape farmers, was known for constantly working in her studio. She was photographed often in Birkenstocks and a smock with her hands and legs covered in clay and glaze.

Glass through glass: Therman Statom unveils new work in RAM's window gallery

Therman Statom talks with a member of the Racine Art Museum staff Thursday while installing his work, "Outside the Box," in the museum's Windows on Fifth Street gallery.

Therman Statom's art is displayed around the world and he's known as a leading figure in the contemporary-glass movement. But Thursday the 56-year-old artist was thinking about Menard's.

Statom is in Racine this week building his remarkable new installation "Outside the Box" in the Racine Art Museum's "Windows on Fifth Street Gallery." Statom designed and built much of the installation in his Omaha, Neb. gallery, but assembling the final piece in RAM's window was its own creative process. He painted windows, shaped and polished leaves, positioned sculptures and taped neon tubes to walls in preparation for Saturday's unveiling.

"Outside the Box" is the sixth installation in RAM's window gallery. Statom's work replaces Arline Fisch's "Creatures from the Deep," which was installed in 2008.

Statom's installation is a collection of glass sculptures and paintings. The sculptures include a house, ladder and chair - three standard objects Statom works with. Each of the objects comes with layers of meanings, he said. Here's a summary of his work as described with a 1993 sculpture in Los Angeles:

His work incorporates simple forms which, when combined with other shapes, tell a story or establish a theme. Over each form Statom adds a layer of brushed paint, bringing the artist’s hand back into the creative process.

The three major sculptures in the RAM installation are linked together with smaller sculptures, paintings on glass, neon tubes and the hanging leaves.

"It's one big painting, essentially," Statom said of the work.

Statom uses mirrors to bring the viewer, and the surroundings outside of the window, into the installation. He described the mirrors as "temporal."

"It takes what's outside and brings it in," said Statom, who is the first artist to use mirrors in the RAM window gallery.

Statom's glass house sculpture in RAM's window.

Statom and a member of the RAM staff hang a leaf in the window gallery.
The Johnson Bank building is reflected in the gallery's exterior glass.

Statom designed "Outside the Box" in his studio in Omaha, Nebraska. Having lived in Washington, D.C., he moved to Omaha five years ago because it's centrally located in the country.

"People say the coasts are the center of the art world, but the Midwest is a great place to create," he said.

Statom taped out the RAM window space in his studio and created the various pieces over several months. He described using "intuitive treatments" in his work designed to deeply connect with people.

"The decision process doesn't have a linear structure," Statom said. "It's more emotionally based." He added intuitive perception underlies all creativity, be it in fields as diverse as art, education or science.

"So many decisions are intuitive," Statom said. "Even hard sciences come from intuition. This is about that perception."

But while he relies on his intuition, Statom is an expert craftsman with 25 years of formal training and practice at creating art. His works are on display in museums in Paris, Lausanne, Switzerland, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Detroit and San Jose. He also has many sculptures and paintings for sale in galleries around the world.

"It's not subjective where you can do anything you want and justify it," he said about his creative process. "I couldn't just come here and paint everything pink because I like pink."

Instead, Statom described a variety of elements that influenced the final piece being installed at RAM. Natural and artificial lighting, weather, trees the shape of the space, the lake, and people he's met in the city are some of the influences he cited in the RAM installations.

Searching for a word to describe Racine, Statom finally said: "The city is just 'multi.'"

Back in April, Statom taught art classes to 200 elementary students. He said teaching is increasingly important to his career and turned him from an introspective studio artist into someone trying to reach out into communities.

"I consider education art, just like this," Statom said.

Along with the Racine installation, Statom has a new work on display in Orlando. "Stories from a New World" is a 6,000 square-foot collection of glass art based around explorer Ponce de Leon's pursuit of the Fountain of Youth in Florida. Statom said Europeans' migration to America changed the world by giving people an escape from monarchies and a new freedom to live and create.

"It really affected everything," he said.

By comparison, the RAM installation isn't political, Statom said. Instead, he created an abstract piece designed to connect with the viewer on a "primary, intuitive sense that exists in everyone."

"I wanted it to be inviting," he said.

Statom (back left) and members of the Racine Art Museum staff lift the base of Statom's giant chair sculpture into place on Thursday afternoon. The back of the chair still had to be added to the piece.

In person, Statom comes across as a humble, warm man who easily slips between art theory and chatting with museum staff. He's also very trusting. It's RAM staff members who assembled and even placed parts of Statom's work in the windows. While Statom created the larger pieces in his studio, he still had painting and metal polishing to do Thursday.

Executive Director Bruce Pepich played a role in the piece when he allowed Statom to paint on the glass wall that creates a backdrop for the Windows on Fifth Street gallery while separating the interior of the museum from the street traffic. Statom is the first artist to paint on the panels.

"It fits beautifully with the piece," Pepich said.

"Appreciate you allowed me to do it," Statom said. "I didn't expect you to say yes."

Statom and RAM Executive Director Bruce Pepich (right)

The paint in the background is the first time an artist has painted on RAM's glass wall that separates the gallery from Fifth St. The sculpture in front is not Statom's piece.

Statom's piece will change throughout the year. In six months he'll return to Racine to switch in new sculptures and paintings. The space's connection to the outside world - as opposed to a controlled interior museum space - brings a seasonal aspect to the installation, he said.

All together, the installation offers a new way of seeing. With the difficult times, Statom said, the combination of sculpted glass, paint and light offered an abstract glimpse of Racine's future.

"It shows what the city can become," he said.

Statom's glass ladder blends in with reflections in the Fifth Street window.