Mostre, Stati Uniti, Chicago, 14 March 2014
Reclaimed Realities is a two-person exhibit of sculptural installations and mixed media collages by Chicago natives Marci Rubin and Betsy van Die, respectively. Commonalities in their work include the reclamation and transformation of materials that are not typically associated with sculptural installations and mixed media collages. Many of their pieces embody a similar color palette – with red, pink and orange tones. Reclaimed Realities is on display at the John Almquist Gallery at North Shore County Day School in Winnetka from March 14 through May 9. There will be an artists’ reception on Friday, March 14 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm.
A 1997 graduate of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rubin subsequently attended graduate school at the University of Chicago where she earned an MFA in 2002, with an emphasis on installation sculpture. She currently owns a small art-related business in Chicago’s South Loop. For the last 15 years, Rubin has exhibited her work in solo and group shows throughout Chicago and the Midwest.
Before attending the Rhode Island School of Design, van Die took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Young Artists’ Studios program in addition to studying with Chicago imagist Phyllis Bramson at the Evanston Art Center. After graduating from RISD, van Die lived in Rotterdam, the Netherlands where she had a solo photography exhibit featuring gritty B&W NYC cityscapes that are a precursor to the work in this show. In the last three decades, she has exhibited her work widely in juried exhibits throughout the United States, with her paintings and sculptures in public and private collections.
Both artists find beauty in decay or what some might consider ugly, transforming their subjects and materials in unique ways. While Rubin use the human form to convey deeper associations, van Die seeks to capture hidden beauty in the ephemeral, decaying urban landscape. Rubin currently utilizes reclaimed clothing as a material source since it directly implies the essence of the human body. Although the starting point in each of her pieces is a specific site she photographs, van Die melds as many as five of these photographs with relics retrieved from the site, acrylics, pastel, charcoal, and colored pencil. The found objects imbue her collages with a 3-dimensional quality.
“The primary material focus of my sculpture is that which are inherently associated with the body and moreover possess a visceral, tactile, and sensual quality. By working within a set parameter of alteration, reformation, abstraction and transformation, I am able to question recognizable and subconscious states of being. The questions presented in my work deal with our expectations relative to form and deformity involving the human body, and engage with familiar features of form such as proportion, scale, interior, exterior, texture and color,” Rubin said.
“Among the sites I photograph are condemned buildings slated for the wrecking ball, decaying facades, abandoned factories, and graffiti-strewn walls. The mixed media pieces are about capturing what others often overlook, and transforming decay and detritus through a nuanced, rich layering of mediums, colors and textures. In more global terms, this work is about excavating/recycling a vanishing landscape and preserving it – 90 percent of the sites I have documented disappeared within weeks or months,” said van Die.
A 1997 graduate of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rubin subsequently attended graduate school at the University of Chicago where she earned an MFA in 2002, with an emphasis on installation sculpture. She currently owns a small art-related business in Chicago’s South Loop. For the last 15 years, Rubin has exhibited her work in solo and group shows throughout Chicago and the Midwest.
Before attending the Rhode Island School of Design, van Die took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Young Artists’ Studios program in addition to studying with Chicago imagist Phyllis Bramson at the Evanston Art Center. After graduating from RISD, van Die lived in Rotterdam, the Netherlands where she had a solo photography exhibit featuring gritty B&W NYC cityscapes that are a precursor to the work in this show. In the last three decades, she has exhibited her work widely in juried exhibits throughout the United States, with her paintings and sculptures in public and private collections.
Both artists find beauty in decay or what some might consider ugly, transforming their subjects and materials in unique ways. While Rubin use the human form to convey deeper associations, van Die seeks to capture hidden beauty in the ephemeral, decaying urban landscape. Rubin currently utilizes reclaimed clothing as a material source since it directly implies the essence of the human body. Although the starting point in each of her pieces is a specific site she photographs, van Die melds as many as five of these photographs with relics retrieved from the site, acrylics, pastel, charcoal, and colored pencil. The found objects imbue her collages with a 3-dimensional quality.
“The primary material focus of my sculpture is that which are inherently associated with the body and moreover possess a visceral, tactile, and sensual quality. By working within a set parameter of alteration, reformation, abstraction and transformation, I am able to question recognizable and subconscious states of being. The questions presented in my work deal with our expectations relative to form and deformity involving the human body, and engage with familiar features of form such as proportion, scale, interior, exterior, texture and color,” Rubin said.
“Among the sites I photograph are condemned buildings slated for the wrecking ball, decaying facades, abandoned factories, and graffiti-strewn walls. The mixed media pieces are about capturing what others often overlook, and transforming decay and detritus through a nuanced, rich layering of mediums, colors and textures. In more global terms, this work is about excavating/recycling a vanishing landscape and preserving it – 90 percent of the sites I have documented disappeared within weeks or months,” said van Die.
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