1994, acrylic and graphite on 29 panels of bonded aluminum, anodized mirrored aluminum and polycarbonate (Lexan) with aluminum framing, dimensions variable
A Quake in Paradise (Labyrinth) 1994
Bob Rauschenberg
January 7 – February 26, 2005
The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Edison College, is pleased to welcome back world-renowned artist Robert Rauschenberg. Mr. Rauschenberg has been a friend of the gallery for 25 years with this being his 12th exhibit at Edison.
The new exhibit, titled “A Quake in Paradise (Labyrinth) 1994” features a large scale, free standing piece created at Rauschenberg’s Captiva Island studio. This piece was created using acrylic and graphite on 29 panels of bonded aluminum, anodized mirrored aluminum and polycarbonate (Lexan) with aluminum framing. “A Quake in Paradise (Labyrinth)” has only been shown in Italy and Switzerland, making this the first United States showing of the work.
The exhibit will open January 7 and runs through February 26, 2005. The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, the 7th, with a reception in the gallery from 6 – 8 p.m. Kat Epple will perform and the Docents of the Gallery will provide refreshments. A new exhibit poster and posters from all prior Rauschenberg exhibits will be on sale at the opening reception. Additionally, the limited edition print “Restoration” will also be available that evening.
Saturday, January 8th, the Gallery will host a lecture and book signing with Mary Lynn Kotz, acclaimed author of “Rauschenberg / Art and Life,” a Harry N. Abrams, Inc. book. The lecture and slide presentation will be held in Corbin Auditorium at Edison College. The book signing, to be held in the Gallery, will follow the lecture. Lecture is at 2 p.m. and the book signing will follow at 3 p.m. There is no charge for the lecture.
“Farmer Who Will be Resettled, Wolf Creek Farms, Georgia”
1935, Gelatin Silver Print
The Bitter Years
March 11 – April 16, 2005
The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Edison College is pleased to present selected photography from the Martin Z. Margulies Family Collection, Miami, Florida. The exhibit, titled “The Bitter Years,” includes photography produced through the Farm Security Administration (F.S.A.) between 1935 and 1942. Additional images by contributing F.S.A. photographers in this exhibit fall between the years 1931 and 1951.
The United States government organized the Farm Security Administration to protect farmers and to put artists to work. It was designed to explain and dramatize the plight of the rural poor in America. Roy E. Stryker of the Economics Faculty of Columbia University organized and directed the photographic unit of the F.S.A. These dedicated photographers became understanding friends and interpreters of the migrants, sharecroppers, unemployed and disposed. They brought back from their assignments the faces of the people, their home-places and the nature of the land. It is not the individual photographers that make these pictures so important, although the leading photographers of the day were part of the photographic team; rather it was the job as a whole that makes it such a unique and outstanding achievement. Some of the most memorable and iconic images of the 20th Century came out of the F.S.A. program.
Leading photographers of the day and those featured in this exhibit, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Jack Delano, Ben Shahn, John Vachon and Marion Post Wolcott, were among the many F.S.A. photographers. The 90 plus images (predominantly black and white) in this exhibit tell a story that could not have been told as successfully in any other medium. It is a triumph of F.S.A. that is unequaled in scope, vision and resulting imagery. Look into the faces of the men, women and children of this era as seen through the eyes of these exceptional photographers and you will leave with a feeling of a living experience that you will never forget.
Annual Student Art Exhibit
April 21 – May 5, 2005
Full and Part time students taking art classes over the past year will have their work on display and be eligible for category awards. The reception and awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 22 from4-6 P.M.with the awards presented at5 P.M. Artwork on display includes Painting, Drawing, Photography, Design, Ceramics I and Ceramics II.
The opening reception is open to the public and refreshments will be provided by the Docents of the Gallery of Fine Art.
Awards sponsors this year include the SW Florida Craft Guild, the Docents of the Gallery of Fine Art, the Humanities Faculty and Dr. and Mrs. Richard Rush.
Watercolor on paper, 54″ x 42″
A Natural Response: The Art of M. M. Pipkin
June 3 – July 9, 2005
The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Edison College is pleased to present the work of renowned watercolorist Mary Margaret Pipkin. Pipkin’s meticulous watercolor paintings of flowers are much more than traditional flower paintings. Pipkin creates a visual drama by combining oversized images with brilliant color, remarkable detail and all over compositions that take the viewer well beyond the realistic images of flowers. Although Pipkin’s chosen medium of watercolor is a traditional approach to flower painting, at the scale she is working, some pieces as large as 40”x 60,” the use of watercolor is a tour de force in keeping with the scale of the subject.
The large scale format and all over compositions of Pipkin’s work afford her the unusual luxury of being distinctly realistic and at the same time containing an undeniably abstract element. A dynamic that is not lost on Pipkin, nor is it exploited. In consort, these two contrasting approaches serve to support each other in defining the space of the picture.
Flowers represent more than botanical specimens to Pipkin. In her exuberant watercolors she seeks to celebrate life and the viewer’s spiritual connection to nature.
Arts for ACT Preview Exhibit
July 14 – August 17, 2005
This annual favorite features the artwork of local and national artists that have been donated for auction to benefit ACT, INC. The preview exhibit includes work by national artists such as Rauschenberg, Pottorf, and Rosenquist as well as dozens of local favorites.
It’s For The Birds
September 16 – November 23, 2005
“It’s For The Birds” opens at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, at Edison College, Friday September 16 with a reception and lecture between 6 and 8 P.M. This invitational exhibition has been touring the country for nearly two years and now has its final viewing at the Edison campus. Organized and curated by Bernice Steinbaum, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, Florida, the exhibit features the work of 49 artists, architects, designers and landscape architects from around the world.
“It’s For The Birds” is an amazingly diverse exhibit that includes both 2d and 3d work. Categorically it covers a broad spectrum that includes ceramics, watercolor, weaving, digital and 35 mm photography, jewelry, video as well as a dominant representation of mixed media work.
The 49 artists who participated in the exhibit have backgrounds just as broad as the exhibit is diverse. The artists are from all over the world …from Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Ukraine. And across America….. from Florida, California, Montana, Ohio, N. Dakota, Illinois, New Jersey and New York, Wisconsin and Missouri. With them comes a vast array of cultural experiences, personal concerns and artistic visions.
Limited only by their imaginations, it wasn’t necessary for the artists’ finished creations to provide actual shelter for the birds. As a result, some are highly conceptual, others reflect on the nature of birds, and still others upon the fanciful idea of shelter. Each work offers a different and unique way of looking at or thinking about our feathered companions.
In the words of Mark Ormond who wrote one of the two essays in the catalog … “The artists in this exhibition have met the challenge to build for the birds. Their structures address issues common to all art. They are about formal issues and the process of craft. Some of the works may ruffle a few feathers but only because they peck at the window of our culture. Others will stimulate the senses and perhaps give wing to the soul.”
