RAM Presents In-Depth: Ken Loeber
Open September 15, 2013 through January 26, 2014, the Racine Art Museum (RAM) exhibition Collection Focus: Ken Loeber features gifts and promised gifts to RAM's collection, as well as work borrowed from the artist that outlines his career path to-date. Spanning nearly five decades, RAM's holdings chart the dynamism of Loeber's varied output.
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Ken Loeber, Brooch, 1993
14k-gold and South Sea pearl
2 7/8 x 2 1/2 x 1/2 inches
Racine Art Museum, Promised Gift of Karen Johnson Boyd
Photography: Tom Van Eynde
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Ken Loeber manipulates metal-as well as other media such as coral, pearls, and shells-into compelling adornment, hollowware, and flatware. Embarking on what has been described as a "sculptural exploration of mass and space," Loeber creates work that reflects both his observations of the world around him and his desire to craft compositions that are rooted in harmony and balance.
Loeber attributes his interest in defining and shaping form to a background in sculpture. He was awarded an MFA in the field from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1978. Loeber's resulting body of work seamlessly blends one-of-a-kind brooches and lines of production jewelry with flatware and hollowware.
The core of this exhibition is a group of over 30 pieces spanning the artist's career that have recently been promised to RAM's permanent collection by long-term Loeber collector and RAM supporter Karen Johnson Boyd. These works represent major stages in the artist's development from both his one-of-a-kind and production jewelry lines as well as his hollowware pieces. These intended gifts will join six works by Loeber already presented to RAM's collection by Mrs. Boyd between 1991 and 2013.
A collection study guide accompanying this exhibition is available free to RAM members and with paid museum admission. The guide features an essay on the significance of Loeber's work along with color images of his pieces within RAM's permanent collection. The 20-page guide is also available for $5 plus shipping by calling the RAM Museum Store at 262.638.8200.
This exhibition is made possible in part by: Presenting Sponsors - Karen Johnson Boyd and William B. Boyd; Emile H. Mathis II Estate, in Memory of his Parents: Emil H. and Anna T. Mathis; SC Johnson; Windgate Charitable Foundation; Gold Sponsors - National Endowment for the Arts; Racine United Arts Fund; Silver Sponsors - Elwood Corporation; Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation; Racine Community Foundation; W.T. Walker Group, Inc.; Wisconsin Arts Board; Bronze Sponsors - The A.C. Buhler Family; CNH America LLC; Corner House; Craft in America PBS Series; E.C. Styberg Foundation, Inc.; Educators Credit Union; In Sink Erator; The Norbell Foundation; Perimeter Gallery, Chicago; Real Racine; Robert W. Baird & Co.; Runzheimer Foundation; Ruud Family Foundation; Carol C. Saunders.
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