FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
02/02/2014
CONTACT: Paula Danoff, [email protected]
847-475-5300, ext 206
Call & Response EXHIBITS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN VISUAL ARTISTS AN MUSICIANS
EXHIBITION: Call & Response
DATES: March 9 – April 13, 2014
OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, March 9th – Performances scheduled from 2pm to 4pm
GALLERY HOURS: 10 am – 9 pm, Monday – Thursday; 10 am – 4 pm,
Friday & Saturday; 1 – 4 pm, Sunday.
See and hear what happens when visual artists collaborate with musicians and inspire each other to create something new: the visual artists are Sae Jun Kim, Ben Whitehouse and Jack Flynn and the musicians are Katherine Young, Josefien Stoppelenburg and Victor Garcia
Call & Response investigates the aesthetic, technical and conceptual intersections that often lead to multiple levels of engagement between visual and musical artists while working collaboratively. Artists and musicians often borrow routinely from each other’s vocabulary when describing their work, for example, the “color” of a song, or the “rhythm” of a painting. The Evanston Art Center’s longstanding interest in multi-disciplinary “mash ups” underlies the premise of this program, which has paired 3 visual artists with 3 musicians and asked them to cross pollinate each other’s works. Each musician will have a 20 minute performance of their work at the opening reception on March 9th from 2-4 pm. Galleries open at 1pm for viewing.
The artwork of Sae Jun Kim, a young Chicago artist, educated at the Kansas Art Institute and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is informed by the friction between nature’s pristine and undisturbed wild spaces and the co-opting and spoiling of these natural spaces by humankind. Over 30 life size salmon constructed from concrete will be installed in the Evanston Art Center’s octagonal gallery, which looks out onto Lake Michigan. Are the salmon fighting their way upstream, or down?
Composer and contemporary bassoonist, Katherine Young, is collaborating with Kim on this installation and will perform a new work inspired by their dialogue, the issues involved and her interpretation of the visual artist’s conceptual intent.
Ben Whitehouse, a British born Chicago-based artist received his MFA from the University of Chicago. He is an artist interested in how light and time shape our experience of the world. His career spans 20 years and demonstrates a practice that has fluidly and conceptually evolved from one medium to another, from large-scale paintings to experimental-format paintings, to high definition and 24-hour digital video.
Whitehouse has been paired with Josefien Stoppelenburg, Josefien is a soprano who graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music in 2005. She is regularly featured as a soloist for oratorio performances in the Netherlands, Germany and the US. She has been called “an astonishing singer” (Chicago Tribune), praised for her “creamy tone, dead-on accuracy and dramatic interpretation” (Chicago Classical Music). In February 2014 she will make her debut in China (Beijing) as the soprano soloist in the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass. This year she won the Chicago Oratorio Award 2013 and 2nd place nationally in the American Prize Opera Competition 2013. “Josefien is an extraordinarily talented, accomplished and creative woman,” says Whitehouse. “It is an honor to work with her.”
Josefien will be performing three pieces that reflect her interpretation of Whitehouse’s work, as well as one piece composed by her father, Willem Stoppelenburg, who is an equally regarded musician and composer.
Jack Flynn is the 3rd visual artist and will exhibit large oil paintings of Lake Michigan and its surroundings. He strives to present the area unadorned in order to discover its complex identity.
The musical artist working with Jack, Victor Garcia, whom Chicago Tribune describes as “a chameleon on the trumpet,” is a Chicago trumpeter, composer and band leader, and has studied with musicians Dr. Mark Ponzo and jazz trumpet master Art Davis. Victor maintains a busy teaching schedule at the Music Institute of Chicago, Merit School of Music, Loyola University and at Roosevelt University.
Call & Response opening reception and performances have a suggested $10 donation. Galleries are free and open to the public. Limited parking is available.
Exhibition funding provided by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the EAC’s general membership.
The Evanston Art Center is located at 2603 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL. For more information please visit us online at www.evanstonartcenter.org or contact Paula Danoff, Director of Communications and Development.