This month in the Bush Art Center’s Godshalx Gallery, you control what you see: sisters April Beiswenger, Gina Williams, and Dr. Lisa Beiswenger’s exhibit features objects that glow and shine––but only if you tell them to.

Their show, which is visible through March 12, casts the gallery in darkness. Quiet and unsuspecting though the room may seem, once you step inside, you may notice that it appears to glow. Each piece incorporates reflective and glow-in-the-dark surfaces which pass around what little light is available from the small strip of LED guides trailing near the walls of the galleries. This alone is a curiosity, but switch on the flashlight supplied at the gallery’s entrance, and the show comes to life.

Wherever you point the flashlight beam, an artwork will return an opalescent glow. Patterns jump to life, a long and trailing mobile appears to move with the light, casting dappled shadows around the gallery. The pieces offer themselves to the imagination, and the shadowed room feels like a little world of its own.

April Beiswenger is an Associate Professor of Theatre and a Scenographer here at St. Norbert College. Her previous shows in the Bush Art Center Galleries include The Making and Giving Project from August and September 2018. Light Doth Beguile the Shining Dark was created in collaboration with her sisters Gina Williams and Dr. Lisa Beiswenger.

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Rebecca Jabs: Illustrating Nature

Baer Gallery, February 1-March 12

Rebecca Jabs illustrations center on the intersection between art, science, and education. By observing and recording nature through art, we gain a greater understanding of the world and our place within it. This exhibit features works portraying notable species from Wisconsin’s native flora and fauna. Selected illustrations from an upcoming book written by Wisconsin Naturalist John Bates will be on view.

The following exhibition-related events will be open to the SNC community.  Important Note: you need to be logged into your SNC account to access the Zoom meeting. 

Artist’s Talk: Illustrating Nature with Rebecca Jabs
Time: Feb 23, 2021 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada). This event is one hour long.

Zoom Meeting link for this event:
https://snc-edu.zoom.us/j/81894127237?pwd=cmNPQitaa3RkOU9tV05lQ01nS3U4Zz09

Meeting ID: 818 9412 7237
Passcode: 434922

Topic: Workshop with artist Rebecca Jabs
Time: Feb 25, 2021 10:15 AM Central Time (US and Canada). This event is one hour long.

Zoom link for this event:
https://snc-edu.zoom.us/j/82328525963?pwd=QUthNWRaTEViKy9WR2VmN1VIM2szZz09

Meeting ID: 823 2852 5963
Passcode: 433650

“Light doth beguile the shining dark.”

Godschalx Gallery, February 1-March 12

Featuring objects that glow by sisters April Beiswenger, Gina Williams, and Dr. Lisa Beiswenger

Watch the St. Norbert College art faculty announce the 2020-21 award winners! Awards are:

Three Honorable Mentions, $50 each

Third Place, $75

Second Place, $100

First Place $150

Many thanks to our judge, Nick Patton, who is a senior graphic designer at St. Norbert College and a 2003 alum. He designed the college’s SNC monogram, the Green Knight identity, and the admission marketing materials. He is the creator and host of the Picturebooking Podcast and has published over 150 podcast episodes and two picture books.

Awards announcers are Debbie Kupinsky, Brandon Bauer, Shan Bryan-Hanson, Fr. James Neilson, Brian Pirman, and Katie Ries. Special thanks to Brandon Bauer for filming this video.

Award winners watch for an email from Shan Bryan-Hanson with more information about your award.

Congratulations to the award winners and all the artists who had work selected for the 2020-21 show!

2020 Senior Art Exhibition Invitational 

August 24 -October 2

Senior art majors from the class of 2020 were invited to participate in this postponed Senior Art Exhibition (the show last spring was cancelled due to Covid-19). The art and design on exhibition was created in their final year at St. Norbert College. 

Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition

October 12-Nov. 20

This exhibition features work by current St. Norbert College students.

Hours of Operation (during exhibitions):

The Galleries will be open, with reduced hours, to the campus community beginning August 24. We are sorry that we cannot be open to the general public at this time. We will post new hours as soon as that changes. Learn more about SNC’s response to Covid-19 here. 

Gallery hours (for campus only) beginning August 24, 2020: 

Monday: 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Tuesday: 12 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Thursday: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Due to Covid-19, the Art Galleries will remain closed for the remainder of this academic year.  I am very sad to bring you this news but leave you with a few images from the beautiful show we just closed, Negotiating Space.  It featured the work of painters Marjorie Mau and Ginnie Cappaert.

 

 

 

March will be here soon and we have some exciting exhibitions planned in the Bush Art Center!

Negotiating Space: Recent Work by Ginnie Cappaert and Marjorie Mau

This exhibition features paintings by Wisconsin artists Ginnie Cappaert and Marjorie Mau. Both artists employ the use of cold wax as they explore abstraction and landscape in their paintings. Join us for the opening reception on Friday, Feb. 28, 5-7 p.m.

(Re)Fashioned

This exhibition explores solutions to the fast fashion crisis, as envisioned by the students participating in (Re)Fashion, an Honors Tutorial at St. Norbert College.

Tarot Nouveau

Tarot Nouveau features a selection of paintings SNC Art Education major, Hailey Buss, created as part of a set of tarot cards. She received a Collaborative Research Grant from the St. Norbert College Collaborative for Undergraduate Research in support of this work.

All three exhibitions run from March 2 – April 1, 2020 . 

 

This month, don’t miss your chance to see this selection of typography highlights from our permanent collection! This exhibition features work from the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, Hatch Show Print, Jessica Hische, Louise Fili, and more!

The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin houses an enormous collection of vintage prints, wood type, and machinery going back to the founding of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company in 1880. The museum aims to preserve the history and images of American letterpress printing, and keeps these traditions alive by offering demonstrations, workshops, and many other events. Visit the website to learn more.

Hatch Show Print, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is another shop that aims to preserve the history of letterpress by production. Now a historic property of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Hatch Show Print is perhaps most well known for printing classic music posters, such as this Johnny Cash poster. Today, they are still active in designing and printing work for various entertainers, venues, businesses, and organizations.

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This exhibition also showcases work from several independent artists. Jessica Hische is a lettering artist, illustrator, and author currently based in California. She has done work for many well-known clients such as Apple, Hershey’s, and Nike, and has spoken at more than 100 conferences. Louise Fili is a New York-based Italian-American graphic designer who has received numerous awards, including the AIGA medal for Lifetime Achievement. Her firm, Louise Fili Ltd, creates stylish designs for restaurants, packaging, logos, books, and more.

The typography exhibit runs Jan. 27 – Feb. 21 in the Permanent Collection Gallery.

Visit the galleries before Feb. 21 to see Fragments of the Acceleration, a project that makes use of photography, digital design, and video to craft a thought-provoking investigation into the “Great Acceleration,” the exponential increase in human activity in recent decades and its impact on the environment, particularly since the development of nuclear weapons. Composed of work from Professor Bauer’s sabbatical last year, this exhibit offers a strong portrayal of the intensity and urgency of the climate crisis.

In the Godschlax Gallery, In Our Hands, offers a continuation of the discussion on climate change. Each picture conveys one line of text alongside powerful images of the environment and industrialization. Read left to right, they reveal a strong message and a call to action – “Our fate is in our hands.”

Be sure not to miss a couple of exciting events related to this exhibition! Come and hear the 2019-20 Killeen Fellows, Brandon Bauer, Angel Saavedra, and Wendy Scattergood present “Consensus, Civility, and Polarization in the Climate Change Debate,” a panel discussion on the tensions of scientific and political debate surrounding climate change. This presentation, which is sponsored by the Killeen Chair, St. Norbert College, will be held in Bush Art Center 130 on Feb. 6 from 5-6. Afterwards, a reception for the exhibition will be held in the galleries on Feb. 6 from 6-7:30.

Fragments of the Acceleration runs Jan. 27 – Feb. 21 in the Baer and Godschalx Galleries. 

Fragments of the Acceleration–A Project by Brandon Bauer

Jan. 27 – Feb. 21, Baer and Godschalx Galleries 

This exhibition explores the atomic origins of what has been referred to as the Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene and the urgency of the climate crisis. The work was created during the artist’s 2019 sabbatical. 

Related events:

Consensus, Civility, and Polarization in the Climate Change Debate, Thursday, Feb. 6, 5-6 p.m., Bush Art Center 130

The 2019-20 Killeen Fellows, Brandon Bauer, Angel Saavedra Cisneros, & Wendy Scattergood, offer a presentation addressing this year’s Killeen Lecture theme “Must We Speak? Civic Responsibility in Times of Polarization”. The presentation will address the scientific consensus, civility, and political polarization in the debates about climate change.

Reception to follow the panel discussion, Feb. 6, 6-7:30 p.m., Bush Art Center Galleries

Negotiating Space: Recent paintings by Ginnie Cappaert and Marjorie Mau

March 2 – April 1, Baer Gallery

Reception: Friday, Feb. 28, 5-7 p.m.

Featuring recent paintings by Wisconsin artists Ginnie Cappaert and Marjorie Mau. Both artists employ the use of cold wax as they explore abstraction and landscape in their paintings. 

 

(Re)Fashioned

March 2- April 1, Godschalx Gallery 

This exhibition explores solutions to the fast fashion crisis, as envisioned by the students participating in (Re)Fashion, an Honors Tutorial. 

 

Senior Art Exhibition

April 14 – May 8, Bush Art Center Galleries 

Reception, Friday, April 17, 5-7 p.m.

The Senior Art Exhibition is the capstone experience for all St. Norbert College art majors.