Emily Minnie's "Everything" at the Quad City Arts Center -- through May 18.
Exhibit: Friday, February 4, through Friday, March 18
Opening Reception: Friday, February 4, 7 - 9 p.m.
Quad City Arts Center, 1715 Second Avenue, Rock Island IL
Drawings and paintings by a trio of terrifically gifted Iowa artists will be decorating the walls of the Quad City Arts Center through March 18, with the Rock Island venue housing expressive and beautiful works by Emily Minnie of Iowa City, Jennifer Vess of Dubuque, and Grace Fundenberger of Bettendorf.
An artist who specializes in charcoal drawing and oil painting. Minnie earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Tennessee. Minnie taught art for three years at Tulane University in New Orleans before living and working as an artist and illustrator for seven years in Brooklyn, New York, and in the summer of 2016, she moved back to Iowa. The artist studies and draws inspiration from the radiance of light and the emotional drama created when the human form becomes frozen in a moment through photography and film, and these moments are created through her large-scale oil paintings and wall installations of the human form. Says Minnie, “I am interested in how film still imagery can feel personal and familiar when taken out of context and recreated."
Vess received her B.F.A. in painting from the University of Georgia in 2017 and her M.F.A. in painting from the University of Iowa in 2020. Her work has been included in both regional and national juried exhibitions, and her experience includes teaching art at the collegiate level and at the Lyndon House Arts Foundation, as well as holding the position of Art Director at Zoo Atlanta Summer Safari Camp. The artist has created a body of work exploring the body as a vessel and the complicated relationship between seemingly disparate processes: internal and external, beauty and the grotesque, life and death. Her mixed-media sculptures navigate abstract textures and surfaces that reference the body and how we navigate times of transition. Vess states, “While reflecting on how bodies undergo transition and how we process loss, I am fascinated with how wounds, both physical and emotional, become markers of injury and recovery, trauma and triumph.”
Fundenberger specializes in hyperrealism, with her colored-pencil drawings of everyday objects designed to reveal the beauty in the detail of these ordinary objects. She has a minimalist approach, eliminating the background and sense of space from each piece, that draws attention to the detail and beauty that can be found in the ordinary. Her “Chromatic” collection is inspired by the visible spectrum, with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple objects. It articulates the impact color has in our lives, and paired with familiar items, Fundenberger's works speak to the visual nourishment we receive daily.
An opening reception for the Emily Minnie, Jennifer Vess, and Grace Fundenberger exhibitions will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on February 4, with the artists present and refreshments served. Regular Quad City Arts Center gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, admission is free, and more information on the exhibits on display through March 18 is available by calling (309)793-1213 and visiting QuadCityArts.com.
