Fri / Sat 12 - 5pm.
Or by appointment.
-
Melissa
Ebbe and
Lisa Kuppinger
- October 14th through November 12th, 2005.
-
GARDENfresh, an artist run, contemporary
art project presents Melissa Ebbe and Lisa Kuppinger, two artists
probing the boundaries between animal and human interaction. If
Ebbe takes the role of scientist so Kuppinger is shaman. Ebbe freely
gives up control of her work to Hobbes and Josie, her dogs whose
play provides the process that shapes her pieces. Ebbe’s
objects ask the viewer to consider them as art and at once
as dog toys. The end result is an uneasy collusion of play object
and discarded specimen. Ebbe’s objects are a response to
her relationship with Hobbes and Josie, an attempt to relate to
these animals on a human level by entering into a discourse with
them, mediated by art making. Kuppinger’s paintings are scenes
from a dream or ritual experience. As the shaman takes the form
of bear or wolf so Kuppinger invites the viewer to share a different
perspective and walk in the soles of others a while. Her paintings
are suffused with stark neon hues befitting both acid trip and
interrogation room. She writes…
…” Time is well spent when you
push a balland make it roll around or plunk a small specimen
into a lidded jar for observation or touch a beeping thing.”
Melissa Ebbe received
her BFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2001. She
is currently attending the graduate art program at the University
of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and anticipates receiving her MFA in
2007. Melissa resides in Gurnee, IL with her collaborator Hobbes
A. McKenzie ,and his associate Josie. Melissa’s work has
been shown around the Midwest, and she was published in Issue 47
of New American Paintings.
Lisa Kuppinger
earned her BFA with an emphasis on painting and ceramics at Saint
Mary’s College, Indiana. She currently teaches ceramic
painting at the North Shore retirement hotel, works with Kindersmock
art collective, and does book renovation work for Gabriel rare
books. She has been awarded the SISTAR artist’s residency
and stipend and best in show at the 2002 Moreau gallery summer
show. Her current work focuses on human-animal hybrids.
