Under the Influence of Art

GAMBIER, Ohio (January 25, 2010) The nature of collaboration and shared influence in the visual arts is explored in an ambitious exhibition featuring the work of thirty-two artists, opening on January 28 at the Olin Art Gallery at Kenyon College.

"Spreading the Influence" continues at the gallery through February 27. The exhibition is an elaboration of a 2008-09 exhibition of the same name held at the Girls' Club, an alternative, contemporary art space and private foundation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Olin exhibition includes the work of Ohio artists, including members of the Kenyon faculty.

Co-curator Michelle Weinberg, creative director of the Girls' Club, will discuss the exhibition on Thursday, February 4, at 7:30 p.m., in the Olin Auditorium. A talk by acclaimed installation artist Ann Hamilton, professor of art at the Ohio State University, is on Monday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Kenyon Athletic Center Theater. A reception for the artist follows the talk.

Weinberg said the exhibition represents the feminist evolution of collaborative art from the style of "male, heroic artists working in isolation" in the studio during the 1960s and '70s. Many women artists, she said, worked in the margins of the art world in that era and developed new, shared strategies and concepts, blending elements of collage, craft and folkloric mediums, and illustration.

"There is a feminist way of working, to consult with others and collaborate and teach," Weinberg said. "This has caught on with all young artists today."

With Weinberg, the co-curators are Francie Bishop Good, the Florida-based artist who established the Girls' Club with her husband, David W. Horvitz '74 H '98; Jane Hart, curator of the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood (Florida); Marcella Hackbardt, Kenyon associate professor of art; and Karen Snouffer, Kenyon associate professor of art.

Artists in the exhibition include: TJ Ahearn, Diane Arrieta, Kenyon Assistant Professor of Art K. Read Baldwin, Rakel Bernie, Madeline Courtney, E. V. Day, Inka Essenhigh, Kenyon Professor of Art Claudia Esslinger, Audrey Fenigstein, Good, Joanne Greenbaum, Hackbardt, Theresa Hackett, Hamilton, Adam Hinterlang, Mel Kadel, Cristina Lei-Rodriguez, Amy Mahnick, Pepe Mar, Julie Mehretu, Mariko Mori, Wangechi Mutu, Vickie Pierre, Elaine Reichek, Pipilotti Rist, Clare Rojas, Sarah Michelle Rupert, Ellen Sheffield, Simone Shubuck, Amy Sillman, Snouffer, and Weinberg. Artists in the exhibition work in illustrational, folkloric, and narrative styles, while some reinvent traditional craft media, work in abstraction, or employ photography and video.

"I think the work is extremely lively and animated," Weinberg said. "You're going to see artists from all over the country."

The exhibition and accompanying educational programs and printed materials are supported, in part, by the Mesaros Fund for Art.

The exhibition is free and the public is encouraged to visit. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information, contact Dan Younger, gallery director, at youngerd@kenyon.edu and 740-427-5346, or visit www2.kenyon.edu/artgallery.