Recent News at Kluge-Ruhe
Judy Watson will launch her new work, experimental beds, with a reception and artist talk on Saturday, March 26 at grahame galleries + editions in Brisbane. The work will be on exhibition until June 30, 2012.
This set of six color etchings features Thomas Jefferson’s architectural drawings of the University of Virginia overlaid with images collected and produced by the artist. The work deals with issues of slavery that resonate with Watson’s personal family history.
Watson visited U.Va. in 2009 and saw the exhibition Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village at the University of Virginia Art Museum. Inspired by Jefferson’s architectural drawings, she read a number of books about the slave families at Monticello, Jefferson’s home near Charlottesville. Some of Jefferson’s slaves are believed to be his own children with Sally Hemings.
Watson returned to U.Va. in October 2011 as an artist-in-residence with the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, a project supported by a grant from U.Va. Arts Council. At that time she proofed several prints with Professor Dean Dass and faculty and students in print classes at U.Va. Watson continued to work on the proofs when she returned to Brisbane, adding images from her visit to Monticello and other experiences in Washington D.C. and Charlottesville. The prints were editioned by Basil Hall Editions in Darwin.
The Kluge-Ruhe Collection partnered with the artist and grahame galleries + editions to publish this work.
For more information on experimental beds please contact Noreen Grahame at info@grahamegalleries.com.
On May 18, the Kluge-Ruhe Collection opens a new exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal art titled People of Substance by Jason Wing. This exhibition includes a variety of site-specific installations by the artist, including Blacktown Dreaming, a bed composed of hypodermic syringes.
People of Substance explores the idea that drug and alcohol abuse among Aboriginal people is a by-product of colonization, and addresses the fact that this is often overlooked by mainstream Australia. Rather than reinforce negative stereotypes, Wing aims to openly address the issue of addiction in regards to both Aboriginal Australia and the wider community.
Wing’s visit May 13 – 19 includes the installation of People of Substance, the presentation of an Artist Talk on May 17 at 7:00 pm, and an Opening Reception on May 18 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.
Wing is a Sydney-based artist of Chinese (Cantonese) and Aboriginal (Biripi) heritage. In early 2012, Wing launched a major public art commission titled In Between Two Worlds for the City of Sydney, which engulfs a 200-meter lane in the heart of the Chinatown precinct. After leaving Charlottesville, Wing will participate in a seminar presented at New York University by the International Network for Diasporic Asian Art Research (INDAAR) on the future of Asian art. He is represented by Arc One Gallery WING in Melbourne. In addition to his ongoing art practice, he is an art therapist for people with physical and mental disabilities.
C’Ville Weekly has begun their annual “Best of CVille” contest, and have just opened voting for the “primaries.” Click here and answer question 10 with “Kluge-Ruhe Collection” so we can be on the ballot when the contest starts!
If you’re new to the Best of CVille contest, a local Charlottesville newspaper called CVille Weekly opens a forum for Charlottesville area residents to vote for their favorites and beloveds…. of everything. From the best place to look at art to the best optometrist, the winners say a lot about who’s who around Charlottesville.
Help us get into the contest by voting for us now!
Aboriginal artist Vernon Ah Kee will visit the University of Virginia for an artist residency April 4 – 12. Ill-like, an exhibition of his drawings and textual works, is on view at the Kluge-Ruhe Collection through May 10. Ah Kee’s textual works can also be viewed at Brooks Hall Commons and at the International Residence College on UVa Grounds.
Ah Kee’s residency will include an Artist Talk on April 5, a guided tour of ill-like on April 7, and a public reception with the artist on April 12. In addition Ah Kee will be guest lecturing to several courses at U.Va. for the departments of art, architecture, drama and film.
Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland in 1967 and is a member of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanyi, Yidinjii and Gugu Timithirr peoples. He holds two Bachelor of Visual Arts degrees and a Doctorate of Visual Arts from the Queensland College of Art. His work has been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, and he represented Australia at the 2009 Venice Biennale. In 2009 the Institute of Modern Art published borninthisskin, the first major publication devoted to Ah Kee’s practice. His work is held in esteemed public collections including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottowa).
Artist Reko Rennie (Kamilaroi/
Gamilaraay/Gummaroi) from Melbourne, Australia returns to the Kluge-Ruhe Collection March 16-20, 2012 to install a semi-permanent exhibition in the museum’s Breezeway. Rennie’s residency at the Kluge-Ruhe Collection in January 2011 involved spray painting the walls of the rotating gallery with his diamond pattern and iconic pink kangaroo “Big red.” This popular exhibit was captured in a video produced by local filmmakers Rob Douglas and JJ Cohoon (formerly Squid and Beard).
“Visitors were dismayed that we planned to paint over Reko’s installation,” says Kluge-Ruhe Director and Curator Margo Smith. “The Kluge-Ruhe Museum is fortunate to have an ongoing relationship with Reko, whose work is in such demand, and to be able to exhibit it for a longer period.” The Breezeway, which housed the Kluge-Ruhe gift shop, is being renovated into a video screening room and lounge.
Rennie has returned to the US to exhibit his work at Scope Art Fair in New York March 7 – 11 and is the first Australian artist to have been invited. Following that, he will participate in a public art project called 5 × 5, where five curators invited five artists to create temporary installations throughout Washington, D.C.
After completing his project at Kluge-Ruhe, Rennie will travel to Santa Fe to meet up with Frank Buffalo Hyde (Onondaga/Nez Perce). Reko and Hyde collaborated on a mural on the side of The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in the Belmont neighborhood of Charlottesville.They have been commissioned to create a collaborative work for the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts where Hyde’s work will be exhibited April 13 – July 31, 2012.
The Kluge-Ruhe Collection sends congratulations to Arlene Campbell, a Charlottesville local, whose raffle ticket was chosen from hundreds of entries as the winner of an Aboriginal painting from the Kluge-Ruhe Collection’s gfit shop.
In the month of February, the Kluge-Ruhe Collection conducted a contest titled 29 Days to Win Aboriginal Art. Anyone who visited the museum during the twenty-nine days of February qualified to enter a raffle ticket to win an Aboriginal painting from Warlukurlangu in central Australia valued at $750.00.
The Kluge-Ruhe Collection’s current exhibition by Vernon Ah Kee titled ill-like, is a collection of drawings and text works, which explore issues of race and racially motivated violence in conjunction with Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s birthday and Black History Month in February.
The exhibition will run from January 24 – April 8, 2012, with an opening reception on Friday, January 27, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.
Vernon Ah Kee is a member of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanyi, Yidinjii and Gugu Timithirr peoples. He is known for his candid explorations of contemporary and historical mistreatment of Aboriginal people in Australia. His work has been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, and he represented Australia at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
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