Quanta, by David Row, 2012
The University of Mary Washington Galleries will exhibit American Abstract Artists: 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery and Antediluvian by Mia Feuer in duPont Gallery. Both exhibitions open on Thursday, Oct. 23 with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Admission to the receptions and exhibitions are free and open to the public. The exhibitions will run from Oct. 23 to Dec. 7.
American Abstract Artists: 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio is an exhibition of 48 archival digital prints. Founded in 1936, the American Abstract Artists held its first show the next year at the Squibb Gallery in New York City. The organization fosters the understanding of abstract and non-objective art by organizing exhibitions, producing print portfolios and catalogs as well as providing a forum for discussion through symposia, panels, and the American Abstract Artists Journal. For the first time in its long history the AAA portfolio was printed digitally rather than using traditional forms of lithography or transferring image to plate, thereby engaging the rapidly changing technological field of the twenty-first century.
duPont Gallery will exhibit Antediluvian, an installation by Canadian artist, Mia Feuer (b. 1981). Feuer’s latest project was to be a temporary public sculpture located near Heritage Island in Washington, D.C. created as part of the 5×5 Public Art Festival, a large temporary public arts. Feuer’s envisioned project was a solar powered gas station that would have floated in the surrounding Anacostia River. However, the proposal was abruptly cancelled by community protestors due to environmental concerns.
The duPont Gallery will display the preliminary materials that went into this major project- drawings, maquettes, projections and recorded lectures on environmental issues held at the location of the original project in order to initiate a dialog about public art, questioning what an artwork’s commitment is to the public, the site, and to the artist. Mia Feuer will give a lecture at the closing ceremony of the exhibition.