The Dubuque Museum of Art is pleased to host Living Proof Exhibit: A Visualization of Hope, featuring more than 25 artists from across the Tri-State region who have been impacted by cancer.

The works on display showcase the courage and creative spirit of these who have experienced cancer and reveal the range of feelings experienced during the cancer journey.

The project is in collaboration with the Quad Cities-based non-profit organization Living Proof Exhibit, whose mission is to enrich the lives of those impacted by cancer through the therapeutic benefits of the arts.

Professional as well as amateur artists living within a 200-mile radius of the Quad Cities were eligible to submit work for this juried exhibition, which debuted at the Figge Art Museum in fall 2018.

EXHIBITING ARTISTS:

Marla Andich, Karen Austin, Maureen Bardusk, Carrol Brandt, Kent Broadbent, Mary Caravette-Shortridge, Gail Chavenelle, Pamela Crouch, Mary Ellen Cunningham, Bob Esbensen, Laura Goldman Weinberg, Connie Gross, Meg Guttman, Sharon Harmon, Hazel Harris, Mary Jo Hinds, Kay Irelan, Gina Kirschbaum, Sue Lemmon, Julie Mariet-Hast, Tara Moorman, Gerald Podraza, LaNae Ramos, Terri Reinartz, Linda Sykes, and Barbara Untiedt.

Just to Live Is Holy features more than a dozen artists affiliated with a religious order, each of whom has made a unique contribution to our understanding of the relationship between art and faith and the importance of social justice.

A highlight of the exhibit will be the inclusion of works by internationally-known artist, Corita Kent (American, 1918-1986). Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa a century ago, Kent taught at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles for more than two decades, where she developed a distinctive, Pop Art style, blending bold color and graphic imagery with scripture and poetry to form a language at once personal and universal.

Works by more than a dozen noted local and regional women religious artists are featured in the exhibition, including: Corita Kent, Louise Kames; Sr. Helen Kerrigan, BVM; Sr. Margaret Mear, BVM; Sr. Blanche Marie Gallagher, BVM; Sr. James Ann Walsh, BVM; Sr. Carmelle Zserdin, BVM; Sr. Barbara Cerny, BVM; Sr. Catharine Wall, O.P.; Sr. Joeann Daley, O.P.; Sr. Chiara Pauloni, O.P.; Sr. Carrie Link, PBVM; Sr. Kay Cota, PBVM; and Sr. Marie Barth, PBVM.

A fully-illustrated catalogue is being published in conjunction with the exhibition and will include essays by Dr. Paulette Skiba, BVM, professor of religious studies at Clarke University; Louise Kames, chair of the Art Department at Clarke University; Sister Rhonda Miska; and John August Swanson, a Los Angeles-based artist and former student of Corita Kent.

Related programs and exhibitions will take place at Clarke University Quigley Gallery and Mt. Carmel.

An installation by artist and Clarke University Professor of Art Louise Kames will accompany the exhibition Just to Live is Holy.

Kames was a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque for 24 years and remains closely connected to the women of the BVM community. She created the installation, Dear Mother, in 2003 to honor twenty-two deceased BVM Sisters with whom she had lived or worked.

Dear Mother honors the lives and commitments of the BVM Sisters through references to key practices and rituals along their spiritual path. The installation consists of twenty black silk forms, suspended in procession and screen printed with each sister’s entrance letter and an image of the pine walk at Mt. Carmel, the Congregation’s Motherhouse in Dubuque. Among the suspended forms are etched glass grave markers and a copper vessel containing a video projection of a beating heart. Accompanying the forms is a Sacramentary, which is the Catholic book of prayers for celebration of the Eucharist, the ceremony of the last supper. Images of the twenty-two women are printed on the pages of the Sacramentary.

Louise Kames was born in Illinois and lives in Dubuque. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree (1988) in drawing and printmaking from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a Master of Arts degree (1981) in Art History from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Arts degree (1977) in studio art and art history from Clarke University in Dubuque. Kames began her teaching career at Clarke in 1983 where she is currently a Professor of Art and Chair of the Visual and Performing Art Department.

Image: Installation of Dear Mother

Whether it conjures feelings of luck, rage, sensuality, or pain, red is the color that always grabs our attention.

That is just what it does in the new Dubuque Camera Club exhibition titled Seeing Red in the Museum’s lobby. The color red was selected by club members as the theme for this year’s exhibition and the 21 images in the exhibition reflect the brilliance and boldness of this powerful color. DUMA is pleased to continue its partnership, now in its 6th year, with this local camera club dedicated to promoting a greater appreciation for the art and skill of photography.

About the Dubuque Camera Club:

The Dubuque Camera Club has been in existence since the early 1940s with its start at the Dubuque YMCA. The current club has over 30 members and is part of the N4C which is an organization of 42 camera clubs in 11 North Central states. The Dubuque Camera Club is the host for the 2018 N4C Annual Convention. More information about the club can be found at dubuquecameraclub.com.

The Handmade Craft Invitational includes works by a select group of regionally-based craftspeople working in ceramic, wood, metal, glass, leather, and fiber arts. The more than 65 original works on display push the boundaries of skill, sophistication, and artistic concept, with an emphasis on functional works and utilitarian objects.

The exhibition – the first regional survey of contemporary craft organized by DUMA – is also intended to bring greater recognition to craft artists at a time when there is a broad resurgence of interest in skill and craftsmanship. The Craft Invitational compliments the DUMA Biennial, which takes place every other year and generally highlights traditional fine art media such as painting, sculpture, and photography.

DUMA Associate Curator and Registrar Stacy Peterson organized Handmade with the assistance of ceramic artist Delores Fortuna and textile artist Maureen Bardusk, both of Galena, Illinois; and boot maker Paul Opperman of Dubuque. Special thanks to Heidi Austreng, Program Coordinator of the Smithsonian Craft Show, for her guidance on the exhibition. Thank you also to our sponsors Premier Bank, McGraw Hill, and Humanities Iowa.

“With this exhibition, the museum was interested in exploring functional craft – objects that have artistic conception as well as a practical and physical purpose,” said Peterson. “Handmade underscores the variety of accessible art forms that can easily be incorporated into daily life.” Peterson added, “We will also explore the life of an object, from the creation process to how the object goes from maker to user to collector. Living with art is possible in many ways that are familiar, fun, and enriching.”

Many of the 23 craft artists featured in Handmade are represented by galleries and have been shown in leading fine art and craft fairs and juried exhibitions. At least ten craft artists have been selected for inclusion in the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show and Craft2Wear.

Exhibiting artists (place of permanent residence) include:

• Barbara Briggs (Hanover, Illinois)
• Ann Marie Cianciolo (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
• Paul Eshelman (Elizabeth, Illinois)
• Mary Frisbee Johnson (Oregon; formerly Cedar Falls, Iowa)
• Amara Hark Weber (St Paul, Minnesota)
• Robin Kittleson (Geneva, Illinois)
• Aaron Laux (Madison, Wisconsin)
• Patricia Lehnhardt (Galena, Illinois)
• George Lowe (Decorah, Iowa)
• Aaron Macsai (Morton Grove, Illinois)
• Kelly Marshall (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
• Elisabeth Maurland (Decorah, Iowa)
• J. P. Miller (Fairbank, Iowa)
• Martha Monson Lowe (Decorah, Iowa)
• Karen Morris (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
• Barry Newstat (Western Springs, Illinois)
• Paul Opperman (Dubuque, Iowa)
• Susan Otterson (Janesville, Wisconsin)
• Gina Pannorfi (Chicago, Illinois)
• Luke Proctor (Mt Horeb, Wisconsin)
• Connie Roberts (Iowa City, Iowa)
• Sam Schold (Sherrard, Illinois)
• Trish Stevenson (Black Earth, Wisconsin)
• Laura Weber (Cedarburg, Wisconsin)

With an eye for the strange and beautiful, artist Sandra Dyas presents an immersive experience in her latest series of photographs documenting people and places in Lost in the Midwest, a visual diary of contemporary Midwest life embellished with a sense of nostalgia. Dyas looks closely at the Midwest’s cultural landscape and the complexity of living here, with the intent of showing what is present and what is slowly vanishing.

Dyas is an intense observer and often finds that she becomes fully absorbed by her subjects, lost in the places and the lives of the people in the images. Popping colors, timeless details, and sensitive portraits define her best known works in the exhibition. Presented with dozens of new images, Lost in the Midwest continues to grow and evolve over time while maintaining a palpable intimacy and familiarity.

Sandra Dyas is a Lecturer in Art at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where she teaches photography, performance art, and video. She was raised on an eastern Iowa farm in rural Jackson County and has lived in Iowa City for over 30 years. Sandra received her MFA in Intermedia from the University of Iowa. In 2007, the University of Iowa Press published her first book of photographs, Down to the River; Portraits of Iowa Musicians. She subsequently self-published two books available through blurb.com, my eyes are not shut, 2012 and Lost in the Midwest, 2016. She has exhibited extensively at galleries and museums regionally and nationally. As a freelance photographer her work has been seen in the New York Times, Vogue, People, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, and Redhouse Records.

Iowa artist and Argentina-native Isabel Barbuzza explores how cultural artifacts and materials influence and shape our perception of the world.

Through combining, altering, and transforming materials, including books, maps, and found objects, to create compelling sculptures and installations, Barbuzza contrasts the worldviews of her native and adopted countries. The artist says, “Through perception, thought, and language, we engage with the physical world in unexpected ways.”

This exhibition is on view in the museum’s lobby and balcony gallery.

Paper is among the oldest known materials used for artistic expression. Traditionally employed as a surface upon which to create and make marks, contemporary artists have increasingly turned to paper as an expressive medium, in and of itself. Paper: Medium and Message presents ten works by five contemporary regional artists who create dazzling sculptures made of paper, revealing the extraordinary possibilities of this ordinary medium.

Anna Lambrini Moisiadis, of New Glarus, Wisconsin, creates elegant sculptures, often from a single sheet of paper. Moisiadis says, “Like the architecture I grew up with, the paper I work on is constructed, built on, demolished, and renovated through cutting, stacking, stitching, and repeated marks.”­

Elizabeth Rhoads Read, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, crafts three-dimensional forms from simple materials including paper and fabric. Inspired by nature, Read’s works play with space, texture, and color to express the intensity of human emotions.

Lee Emma Running, of Grinnell, Iowa, investigates the beauty and complexity of natural phenomena in her artworks. Running’s installation, Watercourse: Mississippi, which spans 28 feet, employs hand-dyed fabric and molded handmade paper to trace the random yet rhythmic movements of water.

Carrie Ann Schumacher, of Chicago, fashions elaborate dresses from the pages of romance novels. Described by the artist as “seductively beautiful” but without function, Schumacher’s dresses represent the futility of feminine myths in real life.

Michael Velliquette, of Madison, Wisconsin, hand-cuts paper shapes and assembles them into complex forms akin to sacred architecture. The formal symmetry of Velliquette’s work is intended to evoke a sense of balance and order.

This major retrospective seeks to reintroduce Charles Thwaites (1904-2002), a Wisconsin artist who responded to changing artistic trends in the mid-twentieth century, to a new audience. Most of the 43 paintings, drawings, and prints in this exhibition are drawn from the collection of the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA). The Dubuque Museum of Art proudly includes a portrait from Thwaites’ Taos period, donated to the museum from the artist and recently restored thanks to donations to the museum’s Conservation Corner.

In 1926 Thwaites abandoned engineering studies for art and in the following two decades he became one of the leading realist painters in America with ninety exhibitions at prestigious venues. In Wisconsin, he was the go-to artist for official portraits, and completed four post office murals under the auspices of the WPA. Six of the mural studies are included in this exhibition. He lived in Dubuque briefly in 1928, serving as director of the Dubuque Little Institute and teaching at the Dubuque Art Association while finishing his art degree.

In 1954, Thwaites moved to New Mexico. The move marked a fresh chapter and a significant artistic shift, but meant his reputation in Wisconsin faded, particularly as the realist style he had mastered was falling out of favor. Stylistically, his realism slowly transitioned to abstraction and he became a member of the “Taos Moderns” group.

The 1960s and 1970s saw Thwaites produce mostly abstract work but by the early 1980s he ceased painting. When he died in 2002, his name had faded from both the Southwestern and Wisconsin art scenes rendering him a forgotten man in both New Mexico and his home state. The journey Charles Thwaites undertook over the course of his life was not just one of physically relocating from one state to another, but really from one culture to another and one artistic style to another. Graeme Reid, MOWA’s Director of Collections and Exhibitions (and curator of this exhibition) has long championed Thwaites’ painting. “It’s exceptionally rare for any artist to be so successful in one style and make a smooth, almost effortless, transition to another. Whether it was realism or abstraction, Charles Thwaites could do both with confidence and originality.”