MILWAUKEE, WIS.- The Haggerty Museum of Art on the campus of Marquette University features four exhibitions through May 19, 2013, including: Dark Blue The Water as Protagonist; Images of the Virgin Mary; Read Between the Lines Enrique Chagoya’s Codex Prints; and Perimeter Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki.
Dark Blue The Water as Protagonist
The photographers included in the exhibition Dark Blue: The Water as Protagonist utilize water as an active element, making pictures that are, at their core, psychological engagements. Water is often perceived as a restorative element, an essential means to health and happiness. Yet, at the same time, it is a destructive force formidable for its potential to threaten life. This exhibition is comprised of works from the museum’s permanent collection and select loans, and includes photographs by Kael Alford, Diane Arbus, Corey Arnold, Tina Barney, Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, Damion Berger, Harry Callahan, Michael Childers, Gregory Crewdson, Zoe Crosher, Joe Deal, John Divola, Doug Dubois, James Fee, Francine Fleischer, Judith Fox, Adam Fuss, LeRoy Grannis, Jill Greenberg, Tim Hetherington, Nadav Kander, Tomasz Lazar, Jocelyn Lee, Joshua Lutz, Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Misrach, Andrew Moore, Joel Meyerowitz, Asako Narahashi, Martin Parr, Irina Rozovsky, Carrie Schneider, Joel Sternfeld, Juergen Teller, Guy Tillim, Carlo Van de Roer, and Bennett Wine and Nir Nadler.
Read Between the Lines Enrique Chagoya’s Codex Prints
Read Between the Lines: Enrique Chagoya’s Codex Prints is comprised of editioned, accordion-folded artist books and the preparatory drawings and trial proofs created during their fabrication. The exhibition seeks to reveal how and why the codex format, made of amate, or bark, paper and read from right to left based on ancient Aztec, Mayan and Mixtec precedents, is a particularly successful artistic device for Enrique Chagoya.
The complexity of the codex printing process echoes the difficulty of the subject matter depicted therein: Each multipaneled print requires numerous plates, with a different strike for each color, and the artist often employs a variety of techniques, including lithography, woodcut, letterpress, and collage within a single work. Content varies and can simultaneously include satirical, multilingual visual references to contemporary and historical political discourse, ancient Mixtec iconography, American pop culture, and international art historical paradigms.
While ancient codices were designed as narrative documents, Chagoya eschews the strict linearity of the form, instead conflating diverse images to create intricate, richly layered objects that defy conclusive interpretation. The codex serves as the most effective medium for the artist’s practice of “reverse anthropology,” which questions the power structures that create dominant, normative cultures and seeks to address the complexity of cross-cultural identity.
Images of the Virgin Mary
Images of the Virgin Mary is an exhibition of international works of art from the late fourteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Based on the life of the Virgin Mary, the exhibition includes paintings, prints, and sculpture that illustrate the five major events of The Annunciation, The Nativity, The Flight into Egypt, The Pietà, and The Assumption and Coronation. Organized by theme, the exhibition creates a lively dialogue between artistic periods, medieval through Modern, and juxtaposes diverse styles and media. Spanning several centuries, this broad survey of Marian art allows viewers to consider the history and evolution of religious artmaking practices and to reflect on recurring iconography, or symbolic visual representations. The exhibition also highlights the myriad ways that artists have adapted and infused Marian imagery with their own historical perspectives, stylistic traditions, and cultural values.
Perimeter Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Perimeter is a project commissioned by the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University, in which Kevin J. Miyazaki was invited to create new work addressing the topic of fresh water and the Great Lakes. The resulting photographs capture a contemporary portrait of Lake Michigan through images of everyday people whose lives are closest to it. Miyazaki photographed a diverse group of individuals who all have connections to the lake: residents, beachgoers, scientists, dock workers, environmentalists, artists, community leaders, commercial fishermen, ferry captains, boat builders, and surfers.
The majority of these portraits were made during a two-week, 1,800-mile drive around the lake’s perimeter. Miyazaki traveled with a portable studio, constructed with PVC pipe and black velvet, which he set up on beaches and in parks, on boat docks and in backyards. Sometimes he photographed groups of individuals in the same location, and other times he set up to photograph just one person. There were some specific, compelling subjects he identified in advance, but most in the project are people he simply met while traveling, and always within eyeshot of the lake.
