The VCUarts Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Museum of the Arts is pleased to announce the January 18th opening of its winter exhibitions: Familiar Faces, on view in tandem with Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets Its Maker.

Familiar Faces assembles the work of national and international artists whose work interprets the human face, using familiar materials: cloth and thread. The third in a bi-annual series of guest-artist curated shows, Familiar Faces welcomes curator, Sonya Y. S. Clark. The exhibition opens with a public reception on Friday January 18th from 7pm until 9pm.

Nationally celebrated craft and mixed media artist, Sonya Y. S. Clark, draws upon her expertise in selecting the nine works in Familiar Faces. Paying particular attention to texture and scale, Clark’s show delves into the human psyche with faces at once both intriguing in their complexity and rejuvenating in their perspicuous sense of intimacy.

Ms. Clark is Chair of the VCUarts Craft/Material Studies Department. She explains:

Recognition is at the heart of Familiar Faces. The exhibit brings together the work of five national and international artists who capitalize on two truths: 1) We are innately wired to identify faces, and 2) We are constantly in contact with cloth. Lia Cook, Kim Kamens, Na-Jung Kim, Devorah Sperber, and Xiang Yang construct, deconstruct, and embellish cloth with variations of common textile techniques. The work is as familiar as two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. The techniques are as subtle as the differences between identical twins.

Clark’s choosing these five critically acclaimed artists; each with his/her unique take on both concepts: the “familiar” and the “face”, solidifies the exhibition through common “threads”.

On a digital loom, Lia Cook, a B.F.A and M.A. graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, weaves large scale sized images steeped in emotional intensity and sensuality. She is a Professor of Art at California College.

Kim Kamens pulls the onlooker into her intricate spider web-like pieces created with thousands of nails and thread. She is a Tyler School of Art graduate, a former glass teacher, and professional artist.

Korean artist Na-Jung Kim, PhD., a graduate of Seoul Women’s University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Hongik University in Seoul, delicately burns silk panels with sticks of incense, creating an ethereal, lilting, homage to the human form.

A graduate of the Colorado Institute of Art, Devorah Sperber creates pieces entirely out of spools of thread and ball link chain. Her work captures familiar faces from classic masterpieces and literally turns them on their heads.

Xiang Yang’s streaming yards of face-covered film-like strips, and stretched embroidery sculpture, transform the Gallery space into an ever-transmigrating shape-shifter. Yang is a native of China. He is a graduate of The Central Academy of Design and Fine Arts of China and holds an M.F.A. from the China Art Academy.

Gord Peteran’s work raises questions about functionality, design, and artistry. Creating his oeuvre out of wood, metal, leather, and found materials, Peteran exhibits craftsmanship of the highest order as he manifests a peculiar balance between the familiar and the absurd. Inviting the viewer into a world of complex conceptual and psychological content, each piece seems to possess a private joke as it addresses the traditional role of furniture while at the same time dodging potential questions such as, "But where does one sit, exactly?"

Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets Its Maker is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chipstone Foundation with generous support from The Windgate Charitable Foundation.

The public is invited to attend the Familiar Faces/Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets Its Maker exhibition opening reception. VCUarts Anderson Gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Fridays 10am until 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm until 5 pm. For more information, call the Gallery at 828-1522.

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