With These Hands - 2009 Sculpture Show

This is my first professional curating experience...



...I will also have a sculpture in the show.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Tall Grass Arts Association presents “With These Hands”, a compilation of sculptural works and wall images, beginning on Friday, July 10 and running through September 13. The exhibition will open with a reception and introduction of the artists on July 10 from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 367 Artists Way in DownTown Park Forest, adjacent to the Park Forest Village Hall. Admission is free.

The exhibit features the works of local and national artists. It will be the first of its kind for the Tall Grass Gallery and the first time several of these artists have exhibited in the Chicagoland area. Their combined artistic goal is to engage the viewing public in the magic of sculpture. Included in the exhibit are works by Joshua Andres, Patricia Bohannon, Louis Greer, John Hansen, Angela Lee, Michéle P. Owens, Michael Ruback, Eric Steele, Jan Stewart, Grant White and Robert R. Williams. All of the artists in the exhibit have studied and created works in other art forms but have come to prefer the “hands on” art form of sculpture. Each has experienced the joy of the combination of thoughts and three-dimensional representation of those thoughts.

Joshua Andres from Benton Harbor, Michigan, focuses on one-of-a-kind metal fabrications. His work has been displayed throughout the Midwest. Joshua says about art, "Artwork colors our lives and makes them interesting. A world without art would be a drab, dull place with no feeling. My world revolves around art, not only my art, but all art, new and old. Art documents the history of our world, not with words and quotes but with feelings and emotions. Art for me is an outlet. It is a way for me to express my feelings and emotions to the rest of the world. I work with different media to achieve different goals and to express different feelings. The art I create speaks of me and of my world. If I am to be remembered, this is what for."

Michael Ruback, a participating Chicago artist who was initially trained as a musician, states, “My work is better than I am. It is freer, more generous, more open-hearted and braver”. His realistic bronze hands provide a whimsical and dynamic viewing experience.

Robert R. Williams from Stevensville, Michigan says that his “motivation is more for the love of the process of doing, rather than a desire to say something”. Robert's life-sized, realistic three-dimensional portraits compel one to appreciate the “visual beauty” of his subjects, which may not be immediately apparent to the casual observer. Robert works in plaster, bronze and other media.

Chicago artist Angela Lee creates stoneware works, which resemble Middle Eastern design and are “recorded, etched, drawn, or painted on the surface or molded into the form itself”. Lee uses fired stoneware to capture the colors and shapes of body modification—elements that fade, distort and decay with age—in a static state. In her unique manipulation of the human body, Angela allows the subject to become the “principal embodiment of thought, feeling and emotion”.

Grant White, an artist from Ford Heights who works in bronze, exhibits regularly in the Park Forest Art Fair. One of his works was selected for the Tall Grass permanent collection.

In addition to bronze, ceramics, and plaster, other artists have included sculptures formed with steel, wood, copper, paper maché or a combination of these materials.

"With These Hands" was curated by CouSandra Armstrong, Michéle P. Owens, Donna Radcliffe and Grant White.

For additional information, call the Gallery at (708) 748-3377 or check the Tall Grass Website at www.tallgrassarts.org. More information about participating artists and other exhibit details can be found on the Tall Grass Arts Association web site (www.tallgrassarts.org).