RACINE, WI.- Baroque is one of those words whose meaning changes slightly depending on context and perspective. It could refer to a specific or general time period, or to a style of art, architecture, music, or other creative endeavor. Possibly derived from a Portuguese word for a misshapen pearl, baroque has a history that has been described as "long, complex, and controversial." Open through September 4, 2016, Go for Baroque: Opulence and Excess in Contemporary Art illustrates how the word "baroque" could be used as a gathering point--a commonality that aligns artists drawing from many kinds of backgrounds and interests.
Historically, the term included works that were considered excessive, full of bravado, and theatricality. While the past emphasis on baroque in art involved spectacle on an elaborate scale, a contemporary baroque--such as what is suggested with this exhibition--could be identified by its response to excess and lavishness, the decorative or the ornamental, and the theatrical.
Primarily comprised of work borrowed from artists across the country working in a wide range of media, Go for Baroque also includes examples from RAM's ever-growing permanent collection. These artists explore luxury, excess, consumption, artificiality, illusion, fantasy, beauty, and the grotesque. For example, Lauren Vanessa Tickle uses U.S. dollar bills to create adornment that challenges concepts of value and materialism--money becomes something decorative, its own commodity, and a material with a different meaning. Suggesting that his aim was only to make work that should be "like an ornament, exquisitely beautiful," Ralph Bacerra merged Asian and American-studio ceramics to create vessels, teapots, and platters with elaborate patterns and lustre glazes.
Suggesting illusion, artifice, and opulence, Leigh Suggs and Amelia Toelke have created large pieces that echo the sparkling and reflective surface interiors in many a grand palace. In essence, Suggs has laboriously created a modern equivalent to the multi-sensory experiences and events that were constructed in the Baroque period. Her piece, Trying to Exit Here, is a grid of woven Mylar and paper strips--begging to be touched, it reflects everything around it. Suggs' work is both a textured, rich surface and a foil to everything else in the room. Interested in the body and exploring the theatrical, Kate Cusack constructs elaborate neckpieces made of zippers as well as "Marie-Antoinette" style wigs made of household plastic wrap.
Other artists in Go for Baroque include - Bennett Bean, Doug Bucci, Tyanna J. Buie, Sienna DeGovia, Misty Gamble, Tamara Grüner, Rain Harris, Hanna Hedman, Lauire Hogin, Anya Kivarkis, Kate Kretz, Nine Levy, Jose MarÍn, Märta Mattson, Jennifer Merchant, Jaydan Moore, Deborah Olson, Soohye Park, Jessica Putnam Phillips, Ruth Reese, Lyndsay Rice, Anna Rikkinen, Stephanie Schultz (Silversärk), Melanie Sherman, Linda Threadgill, Heather White van Stolk, Elise Winters, Marci Zelmanoff, and Petra Zimmermann.
