Kenyon College's Olin Art Gallery hosts new exhibit, 'Opening Doors'

GAMBIER, Ohio (August 31, 2006)

The Olin Art Gallery at Kenyon College in Gambier opens its season with a sabbatical exhibit, "A Door of One's Own: Sculptural Explorations of Terrace Housing and the Stories Within," by Professor of Art Barry Gunderson. Gunderson, who spent 2005-06 as a visiting fellow in sculpture at the School of Art at John Moores University in Liverpool, England, will present an artist's talk in Olin Auditorium on Thursday, September 7, at 7:30 p.m., with a reception to follow in Olin Art Gallery. Both events are free and open to the public.

"During my year in Liverpool, terrace houses were a fascination for me," Gunderson has written. "I quickly became interested in those long strings of houses where owners assert their individuality with distinct divisions of color, pattern, and building material, even when the structural integrity is disrupted. From these external observations, I couldn't help thinking about ownership, possession, and territory-theirs/ours, yours/mine, his/hers-and thus, what stories, dialogues, confrontations, and dramas might take place within these structures?"

The works on display are stylized, patterned houses, fabricated in wood and mixed media and mounted perpendicular to the wall. Their designed-to-scale exteriors and interiors suggest architectural models-schematics of the pace and style of urban domestic life. Thus, through form as well as bright hues, Gunderson imagines an urban social fabric.

"This exhibition is about rethinking the commonplace," Gunderson writes. "It's about the fantasy of dialogue behind the adjoining doors."

"A Door of One's Own" further extends an already large and wide-ranging body of work. Gunderson, who has taught at Kenyon since 1974, exhibits widely and has been commissioned to create a number of sculptures for public spaces in Ohio and elsewhere. Some of his work has been inspired by previous sabbaticals in New Zealand and Norway.

The exhibit, which opened August 24, will run through September 23. Olin Art Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information, contact Dan Younger, director, at 427-5346, e-mail Dan Younger, or vist the Olin Gallery online. "A Door of One's Own" was also shown at the Myrtle Street Fine Art Gallery in Liverpool in April 2006.