By Phillip March Jones, Creative Director of Institute 193
Institute 193 and Robert Morgan were recently awarded an EcoGrant by LFUCG to conduct a series of educational workshops aimed at exposing the public to the possibilities of recycling as a method of art-making. Morgan works with junk and found objects, assembling them into speaking cultural artifacts shaped by the artist’s Catholic childhood, previous drug addiction and the AIDS epidemic of the 90’s. His work addresses the concept of recycling both physically and conceptually.
Through a process of collection and assemblage, Morgan is able to transform hair brushes, children’s toys, old radios and other various discarded objects into works of art that speak both to the life experiences of the artist and to the former lives and stories embodied by the objects themselves.
The recycling of objects, photos, memories, and experience makes Morgan’s work engaging to people of all ages and education levels. Morgan is a Lexington-based artist whose family goes back to the early pioneers of central Kentucky and the mountains of Appalachia. The Institute 193 project serves as a formal introduction of Morgan’s work to the larger community of schools, community centers and art enthusiasts.
“Robert Morgan: All that Glitters…” will open at Institute 193 on Thursday, April 15, from 6:00-9:00 PM. Institute 193 is located at 193 North Limestone.
erin howard
Immediate release: Erin Howard, erin.howard@kctcs.edu
“IMAGENES DE CULTURA! / IMAGES OF CULTURE!”
RECEPTION: MONDAY/LUNES 7PM -9PM, JULY 26
MONDAY, JULY 26 – FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2010
PLEASE COME BY AND SEE THE WORK OF LLCEC FACILITATORS AND PROFESSORS!
This special exhibit opens on Monday, July 26 from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm at BCTC’s Ignacio Gomez Art Center. The exhibition features painting, photography, and drawing by our very own LLCEC facilitators and professors!
FEATURING THE WORK OF:
CARLOS GOMEZ
ERIN HOWARD
MARIA KAREN LOPEZ
ALEXIS MEZA
JAIRO ROBLES
ROGELIO ROMAN
JESUS MACARENA-AVILA
Curated by Jesus Macarena-Avila (INC., Instituto de Nuestra Cultura)
Supported and Sponsored by Hispanic/ Latino Outreach, ENLACE and their local generous sponsors.
Please come by between Monday, July 26 – Friday, July 30, 2010
Ignacio Gomez Art Center, 3rd FL, RM 318
Bluegrass Community & Technical College
470 Cooper Drive
Lexington KY 40506-0235
ATTACHED IMAGE: “untitled”, mixed media on paper, 8×11 inches by Guatemalan artist Jairo Robles, a 2010 LLCEC facilitator visiting from Nashville, Tennessee.
“IMAGENES DE CULTURA! / IMAGES OF CULTURE!”
“I am visible–see this Indian face–yet I am invisible. I both blind them with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I exist, we exist. They’d like to think I have melted in the pot. But I haven’t. We haven’t.” — Gloria Anzaldua 1
This exhibition features drawing, painting, and photography by 2010 LLCEC facilitators and professors. In the wake of “Dream Act” controversies and other issues pressing toward immigrant college communities across the land, the human expression should be a vehicle to express these concerns and even passions. It keeps in mind the diversity that exists in our communities, our dreams, desires and even our guilty pleasures.
Artistic expression becomes a pathway for our soul or inner self unleashing within a visual language. Photography, painting, and drawing become the “vehicle” or medium to produce visions to learn from. This year, a gathering of Latino/a youth, college students and academic professionals converged to support another generation of thinkers, professionals and advocates.2
With this exhibition, “IMAGENES DE CULTURA” the artistic expression is unleash for your viewing pleasure. We hope to dazzle your senses with the work of exhibitors which include: CARLOS GOMEZ; ERIN HOWARD; MARIA KAREN LOPEZ; JESUS MACARENA-AVILA; ALEXIS MEZA; JAIRO ROBLES; and ROGELIO ROMAN. — Jesus Macarena-Avila, 2010 LLCEC Professor (INC., Instituto de Nuestra Cultura)
Endnotes:
1. Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books and Spinsters Ink, (1987).
2. The LLCEC provides Latino/a, immigrant, refugee and ESL students with opportunities to receive intensive instruction in language, math, and sciences in a college setting, to experience college life and classroom responsibilities, and to interact with faculty and support staff.