Exhibit: Friday, June 28, through Friday, August 16
Opening Reception: Friday, June 28, 7 – 9 p.m.
Quad City Arts Center, 1715 Second Avenue, Rock Island IL
From June 28 through August 16, works by a pair of familiar faces from St. Ambrose University's art department will be on display at the Quad City Arts Center, with the Rock Island venue showcasing paintings by the school's gallery director and university curator Christopher Reno, and digital collages by Associate Professor of Art Renee Meyer Ernst.
A Galesburg resident, Christopher Reno creates paintings that are based on the grid as a structure from which to improvise. As the artist states, “Technology allows me to incorporate manipulated photographic imagery and capitalize on the efficient repetitive labor of digital output tools such a plotters or engravers to make objects that I could never make with my own hand.” Reno studied painting, drawing, and printmaking at Knox College, the New York Studio School, Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop, Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas, and the MFA program at the University of Iowa. In addition to his career at St. Ambrose Reno is the co-director of the Quad Cities Veterans Art Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to providing therapeutic access to art for veterans, active military, and their families.
Davenport's Renee Meyer Ernst makes a powerful statement about her personal identity and the concept of belonging with her digital collages composed of photographs from Korea and her U.S. home. Themes in her work include culture, discovery, gain, loss, confusion, and desire, and the combination of elements represents the synthesis and dissection of experiences the artist has had in her adoption journey. Born in Busan, South Korea, and inspired by life as a United States adoptee, Meyer's personal work explores notions of forming and exploring identity within cross-cultural contexts. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Northern Iowa, and a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Iowa State University.
An artist reception for the Christopher Reno and Renee Meyer Ernst will take place at the Quad City Arts Center Gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 28, and the exhibit will be on display from June 28 through August 16, with regular gallery hours Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (309)793-1213 or visiting QuadCityArts.com.
