Jan Brandt, Kelly Hieronymus Whiting, Krystal Kay Lyon

Main Gallery

Exhibition Statement:

Macrocosm, a collaborative exhibition by artists Jan Brandt, Kelly Hieronymus Whiting, and Krystal Kay Lyon, speaks to the wonderment of exploration, travel, observation, and connection to our surroundings.

Brandt's lushly dense, botanically inspired fiber sculptures are installed on the wall in prolific color groupings reminiscent of seasonal changes. Hand cut, formed, and stitched, using many up-cycled components, these layered compositions offer a dimensional contrast to Whiting's flatter, geometrically strong, topographically inspired woven "rugs" on the floor. The scale between Brandt's overgrown sculptures and Whiting landscape paintings stretches the veil between big and small... a sense of vastness and connection to all things. Whiting's work is tethered to the real world as it is inspired by her time traveling by air and car.

Krystal Kay Lyon provides woven, circular forms that fashion into large, human-like sculptures. These personas inhabit the world Brandt and Whiting have created. Playing with scale, Lyon’s work questions the interplay and importance between people and their surroundings. Viewers may perceive Lyon’s sculptures as stand-ins for themselves, or as an invitation to go deeper into the installation, to join Lyon's sculptures to decipher the other artist’s visual decision-making.

This installation is meant to challenge the viewer's perspective, as it would be challenged standing on the edge of a mountain. Perspectival changes in the installation lead the eye to look up, down, and around. Just as technology allows one to zoom in and out on a location, we intend to provide an immersive experience, sometimes literal, sometimes not, changing the gallery space into an adventure in discovery.

Reaching

Bradley University Photography Capstone Students

Project Space

Reaching is the Bradley University Photography Senior Capstone exhibition showcasing work from artists Chrissy Boisvert, Dasha Duffy, Robert Morin, and Kristen Valley. While each artists’ mediums and subjects differ, they all share similar examinations of reaching for connection, understanding, and remembrance. Boisvert’s series features self portraits printed on interactive three-dimensional objects that the viewer can touch, wear, look through, and manipulate, breaking the barrier that usually stands between art and the observer.

Just as the viewer desires to reach out and touch the art, the art desires to reach out and touch the viewer back. Morin’s imagery sheds light onto the ephemeral nature of memories and the subconscious. Imagery coupled with an auditory experience explores discomfort, inner tension, uncertainty, and remembrance, seeking to deepen our understanding of the psyche. The imaginative nature of this series is discovered instead of captured. In the broader context of this exploration, Robert unearths inner trials and fluctuating emotions from both the past and the present. Duffy’s series represents universal experiences such as grief, love, and new adventures through collages of personal objects and recognizable iconography paired with inspirational phrases that can resonate with the viewer’s own experiences. Valley’s series highlights the connection between location and memories, using images collected over the last four years to show how memories breathe life into the spaces in which they were created. Overall, this exhibition investigates the impermanence of time, the lasting impressions of memory, and the barriers that inhibit connection.

Join us for the reception from 5-8 pm, May 3rd.

The exhibition will be on view and open to the public May 3rd-25th.