Imbued:  Artists and Materials 1

november 1, 2022–December 2, 2022

How do materials serve and express ideas? How are ideas translated into form?

We respond to materials. We respond to objects. We respond in particular to certain kinds of objects and the materials they are made of. How do makers of all kinds breathe life into these materials? How do they imbue those materials with ideas?

The ‘stuff’ that artists use when they make a work of art influences both form and content. Every material brings something particular to the creative process and the finished work. Materials influence how artists make their work and how viewers perceive it.

Sometimes the materials evoke a dissonance which is revealed in the way the form serves the content. The artists in these two exhibits use materials in both expected and subversive modes. Additional questions arise: What are material materials? Wood, metal, textile, paper, paint, stone, plastic. What are immaterial materials? How do we make meaning through and with them?