A group of Studio Art and Art History majors has spent the semester studying at the Palazzo Rucellai with Professor Deborah Dancy.  They have used photography, painting and drawing as media for exploring the city, its art, and its history.  They’ll be home soon – changed by the experience.  Some quotes from the students as they prepare to finish their studies:

“I walk through narrow streets, surrounded on all sides by buildings that have been standing for centuries. I use historical and artistic masterpieces as landmarks on my walks to unfamiliar places. I see, touch and have an entire experience with the art I have always studied and admired. It is like a dream.”

“I have seen some of the most beautiful things, [eaten] some of the most fantastic food, and met some of the most amazing people during my time in Florence.  All I want is more. I want to see more, to do more… I wish there was a way I could wander forever; to get lost in the world but be okay with it.  I just want to travel the world and draw what I see.  I feel as if there is not enough time to see all there is to see and experience all there is to experience… Everything seems too short and there is never enough time in a day. I just know this adventure will pass in the blink of an eye.”

“… I still hope to meet the rest of this semester with an open mind because I know for a fact that there are still experiences to be had, even though part of me is already looking forward to [coming back] to a heavy work-load, multiple deadlines, and late nights. The reason for my excitement to go back is not as much homesick as it is an anxiousness to use what I’ve discovered here towards getting my career started. I do believe that this experience has had an incredible influence on me and I’m excited that it’s both almost over, and that there is still a good deal of time left to spend here.”

To hear more from the students, visit their blog at http://uconnflorence.blogspot.com

February 3 through April 14

Contemporary Art Galleries  University Of Connecticut

Artist Reception & DISPLAY AS MARKETING Symposium April 14 4pm – 7pm

Martin Basher + Gabriele Beveridge + Dike Blair + Josephine Meckseper + Mika Tajima

DISPLAY: MARKETING AS ART features works that illustrate, engage, and challenge the visual language of commercialism. It is both about the seductive nature of effective product display and a critique concerning last year’s record-breaking auction prices. A $142 million price tag for a work of art blatantly marginalizes the significance of the artist’s original intent. DISPLAY challenges the viewer to inspect the blurring of lines that separate art and commodity. This initial idea was developed from the overwhelming sensory experiences one has upon entering high-end stores such as Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, or Madison Avenue’s elite boutiques. 

 The work of the five artists presented here echoes and appropriates the visual language and materials associated with fashionable product display to different ends. The artists fabricate their creative commentaries utilizing chrome fixtures and shelving, reflective materials and mirrors, various types of display panels, and colorfully packaged objects. Their works follow the rich tradition of removing an object or material from its normal context and putting it into an art specific context. The recontextualisation of everyday objects became a hallmark of the 20th century beginning with Picasso’s and Braque’s Synthetic Cubism, followed by Duchamp’s experimentations with “ready-mades.” Since then, the trend to employ found objects and embed them with new meaning has gone through numerous cycles. The seven installations presented here are part of that continuum, referencing art history while adding new perspectives. 

Each of these sculptures employs images never meant to stand on their own, but rather to expand the iconography created by the artists to be incorporated into their more encompassing art content. Where Herman Miller’s iconic cubicles are transformed into un-enterable minimalist cubes, every work likewise includes and incorporates materialistic objects such as Noguchi lamps and modernist furniture. 

This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of Walbridge Capital and Kristi Ann Matus.

For more information: 860. 486. 1511