From Wasteful to Tasteful
at the Racine Art Museum
Matt Eskuche
Agristocracy (detail), 2010
Plastic and incandescent light Photography: Alexander Evans  | The
Racine Art Museum commissioned internationally recognized glass artist Matt
Eskuche to create a new exhibition for its Windows on Fifth Gallery. Open
August 6, 2010 through July 24, 2011, Matt Eskuche: Agristocracy uses the colour, line, form, and shear abundance of food and beverage packaging as the catalyst to create high end design within the space of RAM's windows. In recent years, Eskuche has carefully recreated the trash in
his installations using a variety of media, but has primarily relied on Italian
glass working traditions in order to produce a startlingly realistic body of work.
Impressed by the global impact of consumerism on economies,
environments, and land and humanitarian rights, Eskuche has used flameworked glass,
paper, cardboard and other materials to create soda bottles, fast food packaging, and other items commonly seen as nothing more than "trash." For his Windows at RAM installation, Eskuche has expanded
the scale and scope of his work-not only assembling the most grandiose tableaux of his trash
glass yet, he is also exaggerating
details of individual objects and turning them into large-scale compositions of
paint, plastic, and light. With this new element of his work, Eskuche challenges how we
understand the role of "consumer waste" in our lives-finding beauty in
unexpected places and encouraging us to consider the complex web that links
preciousness, luxury, consumption, politics, and the environment.
On
Friday, August 6 at 7:00 pm, Eskuche will guide visitors through a
behind-the-scenes tour of Agristocracy with RAM Curator of Exhibitions Lena Vigna. This
is during First Friday in downtown Racine when RAM offers free admission 10:00
am to 9:00 pm along with a free hands-on art event from 4:00 to 8:00 pm. In
addition, RAM's Awesome Art Sale will offer both the novice and the experienced
art collector the opportunity to purchase original, museum-quality artwork by
well-known artists at affordable prices.
Mat t
Eskuche will return to the museum in March 2011 to modify the exhibition and
create a fresh new experience.
Scan this QR code with a Smartphone to discover
more about
Matt Eskuche: Agristocracy
More About the Exhibition
The
presentation of this exhibition at the Racine Art Museum was made possible by:
Presenting Sponsors - Karen Johnson Boyd and William B. Boyd, RAM Society
Members, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., The Hearst Foundation, Inc., and
Windgate Charitable Foundation; Gold Sponsors - National Endowment for the
Arts, Racine United Arts Fund, The Helen Bader Foundation, The Richard and
Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, and Wisconsin Arts Board; Silver Sponsors - Osborne
and Scekic Family Foundation and Real Racine; Bronze Sponsors - E.C. Styberg
Foundation, Inc., Midwest Contemporary Glass Art Group, and Target. |
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Together, the two campuses of the Racine Art Museum, RAM in downtown Racine at 441 Main Street and the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts at 2519 Northwestern Avenue, seek to elevate the stature of contemporary crafts to that of fine art by exhibiting significant works in craft media with painting, sculpture and photography, while providing outstanding educational art programming.
Docent led contemporary craft and architectural tours of the museums are available. Both campuses of the Racine Art Museum, are open to the public Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, and are closed Mondays, Federal holidays and Easter. RAM is open Sunday Noon - 5:00 pm, while Wustum is closed Sundays. An admission fee of $5 for adults, with reduced fees for students and seniors, applies at RAM. Admission to Wustum is free. Members are always admitted without charge to either campus.
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For more information or to request images, please contact:
Laura Gillespie
RAM Marketing Assistant
262.638.8300 x 114
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