The much anticipated K-12 exhibition of artwork from students in the Dubuque Community and Holy Family schools occurs each spring. Biennially, the Museum hosts an exhibition of work by City high school students. Because of the pandemic, the Museum chose to combine these exhibitions and present them in a virtual format. The Dubuque Area K-12 Virtual Exhibition was open to all students and features 150 works in a variety of mediums.
Archives
Tim Olson 2021
Dubuque artist Tim Olson finds inspiration in the people and places around him and uses that inspiration to re-imagine historic paintings in his latest series. Olson creates a direct dialogue between Midwestern life and masterpieces from the Renaissance to the 19th century. The exhibition features twelve new oil on panel paintings.
Image credit: Tim Olson, Self Portrait with a Temperature of 97.1, 2020, oil on panel, 25 x19 inches
2100 and Counting
This exhibition is a major retrospective of the growth of the museum’s collection over the last two decades. Many works are on view in the museum for the first time. Included in the exhibition are key acquisitions by local, regional, and international artists like Thomas Hart Benton, Salvador Dali, J.J. Kavanaugh, Mark Chamberlain, Elizabeth Eagle, Rose Frantzen, Arthur Geisert, Ernest Garthwaite, Criss Glasell, the Lasansky family, Stanislas Lepine, Francesco Licciardi, Jessica Teckemeyer, Ellen Wagener, Joseph Walter, Marcia Wegman, Grant Wood, and Zane York.
image credit: Sr. Helen Kerrigan, BVM, Self-Portrait, 1974, oil on canvas, 61 1/4 x 48 1/4 inches, Gift of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 2020.14
Janet Checker
Galena artist Janet Checker presents a selection of five paintings from her series Women of the Americas. These five works represent the range of her series celebrating the traditional dress of the women of North, Central, and South America.
Image credit: Hopi from the Women of the America Series, ca. 2000-2010, oil on canvas, 48x24 in., collection of the artist
PORTRAITS OF THE PANDEMIC
Portraits of the Pandemic is an exhibition of self-portraits made during the pandemic by artists in Dubuque and surrounding counties in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. As the nation went into quarantine in March 2020, life for many in the Tri-State area was abruptly reduced to their immediate surroundings. Business closures and the sudden shift to more people being home day and night affected us all in varying ways. During this protracted period of uncertainty, isolation, and controversy around the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many must look inward for ways to stave off boredom, depression, frustration, or fear, DuMA called on our local artists to submit a work that represented their personal experience. Through the works in the exhibition and the artists’ personal reflections, we can address and gain a deeper understanding of our own experiences and thoughts of the time.
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Nichole Gronvold Roller
Midwestern landscape and architecture are not unfamiliar themes for visitors to DuMA. The uniqueness of our natural and man-made scenery inspires many artists. Illinois artist Nichole Gronvold Roller is no exception, though her irregular polygonal canvases and abstract kaleidoscope imagery might deceive the casual viewer. This selection of twelve new paintings conceal the familiar Midwest themes that inspired them and encourage a closer examination. Those who stop for a longer look will find that the artist has made a deep and considered examination of our region.
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2020 Craft
DuMA presents a new exhibition highlighting fine craft, with an emphasis on traditional materials handled in unexpected and innovative ways. Over 70 handcrafted works by a select group of regionally-based craftspeople working in ceramic, glass, wood, paper, and metal will be featured. The 2nd Craft Invitational would not be possible without the curatorial team of Delores Fortuna, Maureen Bardusk, Paul Opperman, and Carole Speliç.
The exhibition will run through October 10, 2020.
Following the first invitational in 2018, this encore exhibition continues to recognize the many talented craft artists in our region – more than we could bring to a single exhibition. The 2020 Craft Invitational builds upon the first exhibition, presenting a new group of exceptional regional artists.
They include: Ali Kauss, Amy Arnold and Kelsey Sauber Olds, Andrew Shea, Cory McCrory, Darlys Ewoldt, Don Friedlich, Ernest Miller, Gordon Browning, James Pearce, John Martinson, Judith Kinghorn, Julie McLaughlin, Kevin Kowaleski and Justin Mosling, Kristin Garnant and v.skip willits, Linda Kelen, Melissa Jay Craig, Mitchell Spain, Rich Robertson, and Rick Hintze.
Image credit:
Amy Arnold and Kelsey Sauber Olds, Hand Bloom, 2017, carved Basswood with layered and sanded milk paint, 38x26x6 in., collection of the artist
20 Artists, 20 Parks
Iowa’s park system began 100 years ago when Backbone State Park was dedicated on May 28, 1920, and has grown to encompass 72 parks and forests across the state. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Iowa state parks in 2020, 20 faculty and graduate student artists from three of Iowa State University’s colleges—Design, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Liberal Arts and Sciences—were matched with 20 state parks to create artwork during summer residencies from April through August 2019.
20 Artists, 20 Parks is an exhibition of these artworks that utilizes the arts to facilitate a greater understanding and appreciation for Iowa’s natural landscape. State parks selected for the project represent diverse ecological, geological and cultural experiences that make Iowa unique. From paintings to quilts to sound installations, the artworks included in 20 Artists, 20 Parks are as distinct as the parks themselves. The artworks capture the sights and sounds of Iowa's natural landscape illuminating the relations hip between art and nature.
"The artwork is as varied as the parks themselves, from the Maquoketa Caves to Stephens State Forestto Gull Point on Lake Okoboji,” said the Iowa Arts Council’s Veronica O’Hern, who helped curate the show. “Together the paintings, sculptures, textiles, photos, videos and other art forms capture the sights and sounds of these unique pockets of the Iowa landscape.”
During their residencies last summer, the Iowa State artists–including students and faculty members from the Colleges of Design, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Liberal Arts and Sciences–worked closely with DNR park rangers to learn about the parks’ ecosystems. The artists visited often to take notes, draw sketches and gather ideas.
20 Artists, 20 Parks is a partnership between the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Iowa State University College of Design. The program is funded by the Iowa Arts Council.
K-8 2020
As part of Art and Music in our Schools Month, the works of students from all Dubuque Community and Holy Family elementary and middle schools are displayed at the museum each spring.
Families of student artists are encouraged to come to the museum and see their art proudly on display. The student art is displayed in the lobby and a purchase of museum admission is not required to view it.
Note: The K-8 student art exhibition has been extended until May 17.
Carrie Pearce
Peoria, Illinois artist Carrie Pearce explores the unlimited realm of imagination in her latest series The Merry Makers. The exhibition features ten figurative oil paintings from the series and opens January 25 in the Dubuque Museum of Art’s Kris Mozena McNamer Gallery.
Pearce’s style has been described as imaginary realism. The fantastic figures in her work derive from a combination of imagination and photographic references. Although dedicated to the rigorous 16th century painting techniques of the Old Masters, she paints curious scenes of children interwoven with an array of toys and pets. The figures in her paintings are inspired by vintage family photos, particularly of children, which she finds at antique stores and estate sales. Pearce describes her work as emotional portraits rather than portraits of people. She imagines what life was like for these unknown children, what their thoughts, hopes, and dreams were. Her paintings become phantasmagorical worlds that explore each figure’s story.
Carrie Pearce was born in Peoria in 1969. She has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia where she graduated with honors. Pearce’s work has been featured both nationally and internationally. She was one of only ten finalists selected for the 2019 Bennett Prize, a national juried art competition and exhibition to honor and encourage women figurative painters. She is a “Living Artist” with the Art Renewal Center, an organization dedicated to the revival of realism in fine art. Her work has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, and Hi-Fructose magazine.
Carrie Pearce: The Merry Makers