DuPont I Gallery
February 17 - June 24, 2012
DCCA's DuPont I Gallery is Spinning, Whirling, Thrumming, and Whirring
Wilmington, Del. - 21 February 2012 - The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts announces the group exhibition Contraption: Devices in Art in the DuPont I Gallery from February 17 through June 24, 2012. Contraption is a thematic exhibition featuring outlandish sculptural inventions made from an array of materials and moving parts. With participatory artworks that prompt visitor interaction, the exhibition stimulates the senses while inviting not only physical but critical engagement. A dynamic display of physics, electronic, and mechanical engineering, the exhibition features artists who transform ordinary objects into elaborate gadgets and provocative machines. Many of the artists in Contraption will be present during a formal opening of the exhibition with gallery talks that will take place during the Friday, March 2, 2012 Art on the Town from 5 - 9 pm with gallery talks beginning at 6:30 pm. A conversation regarding Contraption will take place during the Art Salad 2012 Spring season. Additionally, themes regarding Contraption will be presented during DCCA's 2012 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium titled SUPERstructure: city/building/interior/object on March 23 - 24, 2012. Detailed information of all related programs is listed below.
Please contact Sara Teixido, Director of Marketing and Communications, at steixido@thedcca.org for images and information regarding this exhibition or related programs. View the Contraption: Devices in Art exhibition page and download the exhibition PDF here: |
About the exhibition_________________________ | Cynthia Norton, Dancing Squared, 2011, Courtesy of 21C Foundation, Louisville, KY
|
Cynthia Norton's Dancing Squared puts an electric "spin" on a rural American tradition. Artist and mad-scientist, Tim Eads takes us back to our potentially rustic future in a covered wagon time machine. Tyler Held "tricks out" the trappings of domesticity, turning a cold kitchen stove into a booming stereo system for Atlanta-based gangster rap. Grant Cox's suspension of an old treadmill and a girl's bike in mid-air give new meaning to "exercising disbelief" and Tracy Featherstone's fashionable devices may prompt conversation on what not to wear. A play on "getting it up," Lauren Ruth's people-powered fountain truly needs a hand to show us its sweet moves and Joanie Turbek's Going With the Flow gently slaps us in the face with a slow-motion chase for the almighty dollar.  | |
Tyler Held, Cross Culture, 2010
|
Whimsical and clever, each work in Contraption explores metaphors of movement to present diverse angles on various aspects of culture. Our obsession with female beauty and malevirility, ideas of suburban and geographic identity, and rampant consumerism are but a fewof the pressing themes that emerge through these artists' strangely captivating contrivances. -Maiza Hixson Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art
Contraption Artists____________________________________
 | |
Tim Eads with Austen Brown, 2011
|
C. Grant Cox, III (Newark, DE)
Tim Eads (Philadelphia, PA)
Tracy Featherstone (Hamilton, OH)
Tyler Held (Philadephia, PA)
Cynthia Norton (Louisville, KY)
Lauren Ruth (Philadelphia, PA)
Joanie Turbek (Philadelphia, PA)
Related Programs_______________________________
Art Salad Talks: Thursdays Noon - 1 pm
Art Salad is a free lunchtime series that features informal talks that delve into multi-point perspectives of contemporary art from artists, historians, educators, and curators. Bring your own lunch or have your lunch delivered by Cosi®.
View the full Art Salad Spring 2012 schedule here:
http://www.thedcca.org/content/art-salad
March 15 DCCA Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art Maiza Hixson will outline the ideas of design and methods of construction in the current DCCA exhibitions New Work by the Dufala Brothers and Contraption.
March 22
DCCA Curator of Special Projects J. Susan Isaacs, PhD, will preview themes to be explored in the 2012 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium, SUPERstructure. March 29 Philadelphia-based artist Tim Eads will talk about his studio practice and interactive sculptures featured in the exhibition Contraption. April 19 Philadelphia-based artist Lauren Ruth will address themes explored in her work included in the exhibition Contraption. _______________________________________
2012 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium
Friday, March 23, 2012: 7 - 9 pm
Saturday, March 24, 2012: 8:30 am - 12:30 pm
 Under Construction is one of seven exhibitions during the Spring 2012 schedule that are thematically linked in a series titled SUPERstructure: city/building/interior/object. This exhibition theme will be the topic of DCCA's 2012 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium on March 23 - 24, 2012 with Keynote Speaker Marshall Brown Professor of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The Symposium SUPERstructure will present interdisciplinary scholarship and examine artistic/architectural practice as a platform for discussion of the built environment, including the urban and domestic, the environmentally sustainable and unsustainable, the beautiful and repellant, and the permeable boundaries between design, craft, and fine art. This program is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Saturday March 24, 2012, 11 am
Philadelphia-based artists, satirists, and siblings Billy and Steven Dufala design and fabricate wildly awkward and inefficient versions of consumer goods using mass-produced materials. The artists' prior constructions include a fiberglass furniture suite and chain-link house. Hixson discusses the artists' wry cultural commentary and pragmatic design approach to absurd objects and skillfully crafted sculptural lemons.
|
| ____________________________________________________
Guided Tours
To arrange Guided tours for DCCA exhibitions, contact the Education Department at 302-656-6466 x7101. Learn more about DCCA's tour programs:
http://www.thedcca.org/content/guided-tours
About the DCCA
The DCCA, a non-collecting art museum founded in 1979, presents between 25 and 30 exhibitions annually of regionally, nationally, and internationally recognized artists that explore topical issues in contemporary art and society, as well as symposia, lectures and tours. The DCCA rents individual studios to more than 25 artists, who also exhibit regularly within its galleries and throughout the region. The DCCA presents a variety of educational and outreach programs, including programs that integrate contemporary arts into the public school curriculum, and artists' residencies that feature collaboration with underserved community groups. The center is housed in a renovated industrial building at 200 South Madison St. in the heart of the rejuvenated Wilmington Riverfront.
DCCA gallery hours are:
10 am - 5 pm Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Noon - 5 pm Wednesday and Sunday
Admission is FREE
302-656-6466
www.thedcca.org
The DCCA is wheelchair-accessible.
Visitors with special needs are encouraged to call in advance.
DCCA exhibitions and programs are made possible, in part, by individual contributions; member support; and by major grants from Bank of America, Borgenicht Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, DuPont, ING DIRECT, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware in partnership with National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Christmas Shop Foundation; Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities; The First State Gridiron Board; The Gilliam Foundation; I Could Do Great Things Foundation; Puffin Foundation; United Way of Delaware; Walmart; Wilmington Flower Market; and by Amtrak - Official Transportation Provider for the DCCA.
High resolution images available upon request.
***
|
|
CONTACT
Sara Monserrat Teixido
Director of Marketing and Communications
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
200 South Madison Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
302-656-6466 x7110
steixido@thedcca.org
 
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
