AUGUST 2022
Iris Williamson
The New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art recently completed the first stage of long-overdue facilities upgrades in the main gallery space. This includes new LED track lighting through ESL-Spectrum, ceiling painting, facade painting, black-out window shades and new signage. We are thankful to the Efroymson Family Fund for their generous support of the gallery and this important project.
Our current exhibition Utopia Land by Modou Dieng Yacine features large, abstract paintings and mixed media works and really looks amazing in our bright, updated space. The show is up through August 27 and builds upon architectural imagery from New Orleans, Louisiana, and his hometown of Saint-Louis, Senegal, to imagine an ideal place.
Next up, Chicago-based artist Cass Davis mines their rural Illinois roots in a solo exhibition Revelations, opening September 10 (September’s New Harmony Second Saturday). Through performance, video, installation and sculpture, Cass Davis’ work examines their own Midwestern Evangelical upbringing. Davis is interested in understanding relationships between redemption, resurrection, embodied trauma and the failure of the American dream. Concurrently, we will have an exhibition with USI alum, woodworker Ally Hinton in our student gallery, BG Projects. We hope to see you at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in the near future!
JUNE 2022
Iris Williamson
Over the next few weeks, the gallery side of New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art (NHGCA) will be closed for some exciting facilities upgrades. Specifically, we will install new LED track lighting and painting the ceiling. While this is only one of several projects on our grand facilities-upgrades docket, it will likely be the most impactful. We anticipate a beautiful Second Saturday opening in a refreshed gallery space from 4 to 6 p.m. on July 9, with “Utopia Land” by internationally respected artist Modou Dieng Yacine. Brightly colored paintings and photographs—incorporating architecture, abstraction and memories of growing up in Senegal—represent Dieng Yacine’s imagined utopia. “Utopia Land” will be an excellent exhibition, and we hope you will join us on July’s opening during New Harmony Second Saturdays!
In the meantime, our Gallery Shop will be open during regular hours. Senior Gallery Associate Tonya Lance has been putting in a great effort over the last several months to keep the Gallery Shop fresh and exciting. New artists include Nasreen Khan, Diego Moralis-Portillo and Evelyn Sanford Nicholson. We also have new works by shop staples Jen Bretz, Mitzi Davis and Kazhia Kolb. Make sure to swing by; you never know what kind of treasures we will have in the NHGCA Gallery Shop!
MAY 2022
Iris Williamson
On April 30, New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art opened “Residence VI,” an exhibition featuring ceramics by recent New Harmony Clay Project (NHCP) artists-in-residence. Works by Caro Burks, Donna Causland, Katie Chandler, Pennie Ebsen, Daeun Lim, Sarah McIntosh, Natalie Nicholson, Eva Polzer and Mona Martinez Seno span the realm of the functional, the sculptural and installation. “Residence VI” is the sixth-annual exhibition showcasing NHCP residents.
New Harmony Clay Project celebrates research and experimentation in clay, bringing artists from around the world to expand their practice at Sarah Campbell Blaffer Ceramic Studio in New Harmony, Indiana. In addition to being a vital resource for visiting artists, NHCP provides classes in the summer for community members who are interested in working with clay. We’re thankful for this longstanding partnership with New Harmony Clay Project, and we hope you will make it out to the gallery before June 11 to see “Residence VI!”
MARCH 2022
Iris Williamson
Visualizing Spaces opens March 12 (New Harmony’s Second Saturday), featuring work by regional and national artists examining ideas around what utopia is, and for whom. Artists include Robert Burnier, Su A Chae, Nasreen Khan, Diego Morales-Portillo, Brenda Mallory, SaraNoa Mark, Deb Sokolow and Janie Stamm.
The exhibition is being presented in conjunction with Big Car Collaborative’s Social Alchemy Symposium, April 10-13, 2022, in New Harmony and virtually.
Social Alchemy Symposium conversations—led by more than 20 notable authors, artists, designers, researchers and philosophers from Indiana and around the world—will look at the role of utopian thinking today and tomorrow while connecting with the past. Speakers include:
Other guests include Indiana writers Susan Neville, Adrian Matejka and Matthew Graham (current poet laureate); Indiana artists and arts leaders from New Harmony, Columbus, Bloomington and Indianapolis; leading architects, planners and designers and utopian/communal studies scholars.
Register for free tickets here.
FEBRUARY 2022
Iris Williamson
In spite of snow days and COVID outbreaks, Vanessa Viruet’s solo exhibition PAÑUELXS is up and on view through March 5, 2022. In addition to the interior gallery space filled with shiny and bold mixed media artworks, a public art piece by Viruet sits directly across from the gallery in Maclure Square. We hope you can venture out to experience Viruet’s work during our open hours (Tues–Sat 10 a.m.–5 p.m.), or during our closing reception with the artist in attendance (March 5, 4–6 p.m.).
A group exhibition titled Visualizing Spaces is next up at the gallery. It will be presented alongside the upcoming (free) Social Alchemy Symposium, which will be held both virtually and in-person from April 11–13. We look forward to opening Visualizing Spaces on March 12, from 4-6 p.m., in conjunction with New Harmony Second Saturday.
DECEMBER 2021/JANUARY 2022
Iris Williamson
Happy Holidays! The last day New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art and the Gallery Shop will be open in 2021 is Saturday, December 18. If you plan on doing some holiday shopping at the Gallery Shop or from Filled Up 2: A Ceramic Cup Show, make sure you visit by December 18!
The Gallery Shop opens back up on January 4, but there will be an additional break before we have a new exhibition in the Main Gallery. This is to allow for some facility improvements in the gallery and to align our next opening with when USI students are back in class.
Opening Saturday, January 22 and lasting through Saturday, March 5 is a solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist Vanessa Viruet. Viruet will be presenting large-scale sculptures and textile works utilizing materials like hoop earrings, oversized bandanas and flags. In her upcoming show, Viruet considers the aesthetics of femininity and masculinity through a lens of her Puerto Rican heritage. In addition, Viruet’s Black Car Pañuelo will be installed in Maclure Square, directly across from the Gallery. An opening reception is planned for 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, January 22, and an on-campus artist talk will be held at noon Friday, January 21 at University Center West, Rm 226-227.
NOVEMBER 2021
Iris Williamson
Next up at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is Filled Up 2: A Ceramic Cup Show with the New Harmony Clay Project. This juried exhibition highlights a broad selection of ceramic cups submitted from artists around the country. The exhibition will be on display beginning November 20, and a public reception will be held from 4 -6 p.m. Saturday, December 4 (in conjunction with Christmas in New Harmony). From that point, you can purchase the cups as a holiday gift for a loved one or yourself!
About NHCP: New Harmony Clay Project (NHCP) is an artist residency and educational center located in historic New Harmony. The project fosters an environment that supports the investigation of new ideas and work in the ceramic arts. It was established in 2015 by Lenny Dowhie, an internationally known ceramic sculptor and Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Indiana. NHCP is supported by the Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation, Efroymson Family Fund, Greater Houston Community Foundation and Lenny and Anne Dowhie Trusts. Its goal is to encourage emerging and professional visual artists/educators in ceramics by giving them quiet space and the time to develop a new body of work. The Clay Project is located within the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Ceramic Studio in New Harmony next to the Roofless Church.
We will be open until 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 11 for New Harmony’s Second Saturday Gallery Stroll.
OCTOBER 2021
Iris Williamson
In October, we welcomed Chicago artist Kellie Romany to New Harmony and the USI campus in celebration of the opening of her solo exhibition at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art—Systems | Bodies | Parameters. The exhibition, which runs from October 9 through November 13 features 12 lush abstract paintings with surfaces that have to be seen in person.
In Systems | Bodies | Parameters, Kellie Romany utilizes the materiality of paint to investigate issues around identity, relationships and racial constructs. Using a color palette of skin tones, Romany’s shapes and textures become metaphors for the body. As she intuitively shifts and turns the canvas, pigments and oils expand outwards and blend, bleed, clot and crack. Colors and textures emerge, suggesting the biological complexity of skin.
This is an exhibition not to miss—we are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays , and the exhibition runs through November 13.
We'll also have a closing reception for Systems | Bodies | Parameters on Saturday, November 13, which happens to be November's Second Saturday Art Stroll. Make sure to check it out!
SEPTEMBER 2021
Iris Williamson
Throughout September, New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art continues the group exhibition, Describing Language: Thinking Through Access and Communication. Our back gallery has become an interactive space for research, refection and sharing. USI students and faculty, New Harmony residents and the general public have been contributing personal anecdotes, artworks, texts and other ideas around the topic of communication and access. We invite your resources, conversations and contributions to this multi-faceted topic. Visit on-access.org for more information about the artists in the show!
New Harmony events are picking up again, including the biggest festival of the year, Kunstfest, (Sept 18-19). Keep Arts in Harmony on your radar as well, happening October 16 and17. We also are launching Second Saturday Gallery Strolls in New Harmony, in collaboration with our friends at Hoosier Salon and Mason-Nordgauer Fine Arts Gallery. Every Second Saturday of the month from 4 to 7 p.m. the galleries will be open late and host special events. Don’t forget to bring your mask, as they are still required indoors on all USI property.
Finally, I want to let you know about our next exhibition, a solo show by Chicago artist Kellie Romany, titled Systems | Bodies | Parameters. Romany uses lush oils and pigments to explore the materiality of paint and abstraction. Using a color palette of skin tones, her work also recalls the relationships between bodies, biology and race. The opening of Systems | Bodies | Parameters will be held 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, October 9 , corresponding with October’s Second Saturday. There are many good excuses to visit New Harmony this fall, and we hope you’ll join us!
AUGUST 2021
Iris Williamson
The way someone can communicate to another person can be the point where they can access their needs, wants or desires. So often, miscommunication can deny people resources and opportunities. Our upcoming exhibition, Describing Language: Thinking Through Access and Communication, is a partnership between the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Southern Indiana and the University of Oregon's Center for Art Research. Describing Language serves as both an exhibition and a laboratory for examining the ways in which language and other methods of communication allow or deny access.
The group exhibition features works by Farhad Bahram, Jodie Cavalier, Jovencio de la Paz, Tannaz Farsi, Christine Laurin Miller, Warren Miller, Alyson Provax, Josie Love Roebuck, Xia Zhang and Yuyang Zhang. Serving as points of entry for community discussion and investigation, Describing Language is malleable and changing, inviting other examples, experiences and learning opportunities around the theme.
The exhibition runs from August 21 through October 2, 2021. While we won't be having an opening reception, we are working with students, faculty and staff from USI, as well as other community members and groups, to collaborate, share stories and create responses to project. Follow our Instagram page @nhgca to keep up with the many pop-up programs and projects around the exhibition.
JULY 2021
Iris Williamson
This month, USI alumna Jennifer Niswonger returns to southern Indiana for her solo exhibition of recent paintings—News Feed. The show opened on Tuesday, July 6 and runs through August 7, when we will be hosting a closing reception for the artist. We hope you will mark your calendars for the reception: 4-6 p.m. Saturday, August 7 at the gallery in New Harmony. Refreshments will be served.
In News Feed, Jennifer Niswonger’s narrative paintings investigate the performative nature of digital media. Responding to the fervid cycle of the news, Niswonger seeks to make visible the clickbate language and flashy information that is designed more to keep audiences engaged than to facilitate information.
Niswonger sets up her paintings as a stage, complete with backdrops, actors, costume and dramatic lighting. Hints of various real-life news stories show up as props or positions in her pieces (i.e. a 2017 story about cows eating Skittles). Through her vivid use of color, custom-built canvases and precise painting techniques, Niswonger plays up the drama and spectacle of the news cycle. By doing so, she also calls out the humor and hypocrisy of performatively re-posting digital content.
Jennifer Niswonger was born in 1991 in southern Indiana. She graduated from the University of Southern Indiana in 2014 where she received the 2015 Efroymson Bridge Year Fellowship. Niswonger moved to Athens, Georgia, in 2016 to pursue her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Through her work and research at the University of Georgia, Niswonger was awarded the Willson Center Graduate Research Award and the Frierson Graduate Fellowship among other scholarships. While a graduate student, Niswonger managed the Glass Gallery at the art school and founded the Locker 666 Gallery, an alternative exhibition space project that began inside a school locker. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2019. She is now working as an apprentice at Chico Lou’s Fine Tattoos under Sara Machen-Fogle in Athens, Georgia.
Note: exhibition contains nudity and dead animals.
JUNE 2021
Iris Williamson
We are into summer and halfway through our current exhibition featuring artists Audrey Barcio and Rachel Leah Cohn, titled Sapientia Gloria Corona Est. We will be hosting a conversation with the artists, as well as the curator, Shauta Marsh of Big Car Collaborative, at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday, June 26. Mark your calendars for the event, and join us though this Zoom Meeting ID: 884 6802 0852 or the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88468020852
Sapienta Gloria Corona Est was also recently featured in the Ball State Daily. Check out the article here.
MAY 2021
Iris Williamson
If you haven’t had enough fun celebrating Robert Owen’s birthday, swing by the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art for our first exhibition opening since before COVID-19!
On Saturday, May 15, from 3 to 5 p.m., we hope you will join us for the opening of Sapientia Gloria Corona Est, featuring works by Indiana artists Audrey Barcio and Rachel Leah Cohn. Pre-packaged refreshments will be served, and masks are required to enter the building (per USI’s Covid-19 policy).
As part of the ongoing Social Alchemy partnership with Indianapolis-based Big Car Collaborative, this exhibition taps into the history, art and architecture that has long made New Harmony a source of creative and spiritual energy for artists and thinkers. Sapientia Gloria Corona Est— Wisdom is the Crown of Glory—is the motto of the Minerva Society, one of the first women’s clubs in America. Founded in New Harmony, the leaders of the Minerva Society nurtured critical conversation, political debate and community engagement. Curator Shauta Marsh finds similar qualities in the works and practices of Barcio and Cohn.
Ideas of utopia and dystopia have long influenced these artists and their work. Through reflective wall pieces and large-scale floor sculptures, Barcio and Cohn each explore concepts of memory, mythology and community. Sapientia Gloria Corona Est unifies the two not only as artists but as teachers, provocateurs, feminists and catalysts for change. This exhibit, like Social Alchemy as a whole, simultaneously looks back and ahead, and strives to make progress as a society. Women are what they think.
APRIL 2021
Iris Williamson
Thanks to all who have warmly welcomed me to the New Harmony and USI communities. Since I began this new role as Gallery Manager six weeks ago, I've learned so much about the rich history of New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, the University and the region. And there's still so much more to discover!
With the arrival of spring, the gallery has shifted to extended hours. In addition to being open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., we now are open Sundays from Noon – 4 p.m.
We recently opened Weaving Water, featuring new works by textile artist Laura Foster Nicholson. The exhibition runs from March 28 to May 8.
In Weaving Water Laura Foster Nicholson builds upon previous investigations around flooding and architecture. Her intricately woven textiles capture the romance and beauty of built structures while inviting viewers to confront the environmental consequences of industry and development. Nicholson explores these themes through depictions of arches and patterns in Venetian architecture, colorful patterns of container ships and reflective bodies of water.
Nicholson’s compositions, material choice and methods of weaving directly relate to the concepts she is exploring. For example, warp threads, intersected by the perpendicular weft threads, make a construction similar to a 2-dimensional architectural view. Nicholson also uses modern, metallic threads to suggest the reflective surface of shimmering water. Vacillating between opacity and transparency of layers of color, Nicholson creates strong geometric facades, reflected in water.
While we still aren’t having public receptions yet, we will be having two (free) walk-throughs with the artist on Saturday, April 17 at 1 p.m. and again on Saturday, May 8 at 1 p.m. Masks and social distancing will be required to participate. Please email me at iris.williamson@usi.edu if you would like to attend.
There are many more projects in the works behind the scenes, and I look forward to unveiling them in the coming months!
MARCH 2021
Iris Williamson
Greetings! As of March 1, I’ve joined the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art as its new Gallery Manager. My first week on the job has been met with overwhelming kindness and hospitality, and I’m so grateful to be welcomed into this amazing community. For me, encountering great works of art is a transformative occasion, and facilitating that experience through exhibitions and programs is a great privilege.
I have pursued these encounters throughout my career, with an education anchored in art, art history, community building and research methods, and with work experience in and around various architecture, design and contemporary art organizations. I believe that collaboration, creativity and exploration in the visual arts can inspire and enrich audiences of all backgrounds. I’m excited and honored to embrace my Indiana roots and to support USI and New Harmony in this role.
Make sure to say hello the next time you swing by NHGCA! I’d love to hear your favorite USI and New Harmony stories, and your recommendations for regional food, hiking—and ART!
FEBRUARY 2021
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
Each year, we partner with the New Harmony Clay Project (NHCP) to showcase their resident artists. From February 6-March 20, 2021, work from artists Cori Crumrine, Maxwell Mustardo, Alisha Porter and Amanda Straeffer will be exhibition at the gallery.
The NHCP residency program fosters an environment that supports the investigation of new ideas and work of ceramic artists. It is an organization under the New Harmony Artist Guild, a non-profit 501(c)3, that serves as an incubator for nurturing the arts. NHCP is a rural residency program, supported by the Efroymson Family Fund, Greater Houston Community Foundation, Lenny and Anne Dowhie Trusts, and Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation. The goal is to encourage emerging and professional visual artists/educators in ceramics by giving them quiet space and the time to develop a new body of work.
Meet the artists:
Cori Crumrine studied ceramics at Bowling Green State University (BFA 2013) and the University of Colorado Boulder (post-baccalaureate 2014) and completed her first residency position at the Künstlerhaus Stadttöpferei Neumünster in Germany (2015). She earned her MFA from The University of Montana (2018). Her residence last spring was interrupted twice due to the pandemic. She is curious and concerned by the attractive qualities of artificial things: flavors, colors and materials. The world’s consumption and obsession with plastic is a conscientious issue that she examines through her work. Crumrine borrows confectionery forms and colors from the culinary world, playing with the duality of delight and distaste. Utilizing the food aspect of her work, she strives to incorporate repurposed artificial materials into her studio practice so as to create work and conversations about the issue of consumption.
“Ultimately, my work is an attempt to harness delight and intrigue using a medley of vibrant colors and confectionary elements.” ~ Cori Crumrine
Maxwell Mustardo was born and raised in rural Pittstown, New Jersey. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Science in Art History and Theory from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2017. He has been conducting rigorous material research with plastics and glasses for the past few years and his resulting work has become more sculptural and less utilitarian. While in New Harmony, his goal has been to push his work back towards functionality while maintaining robust material exploration. Mustardo has been developing his own glazes using metal saturated glasses that precipitate crystal growth during a kiln’s cooling, as the metals can’t become chemically stable in the fully melted glass matrix. His material research through glaze testing has led into the creation of forms tailored to suit the needs of these developed surfaces.
“I approach making as a vital opportunity to examine perception and signification. My work engages with ceramics as a polyphonic medium: one that speaks in multiple voices simultaneously. By working within simple constraints, such as the format of the mug, vase or torus, I explore orchestrating elements of surface, form, materiality, and function.” ~ Maxwell Mustardo
Alisha Porter is an artist, queer theorist and social justice activist living in the Borderlands of the American southwest examining the materiality of bodies and social constructions via the dynamic, diverse and powerful lens of ceramic materiality and processes. Porter started pursuing art and activism as they achieved their Bachelor of Individualized Studies from New Mexico State University in 2020. Porter utilizes progressive plaster mold processes, glaze and clay body formulations, and surface design and texture techniques to address the materiality of their queer body via the materiality of ceramics. Plaster molds taken of their body and functional wares are joined and adorned with surface design to produce intriguing forms that lead to subversive understandings.
“I make objects intending to shock and captivate the viewer with complexity of construction and striking surface design leading to undeniable attraction or intrigue. I hope this fascination provokes the viewers further consideration creating a critical interaction; thus, a transcendent consciousness may occur-cognizance of the materiality of ‘others’ objectivity. …with a beautiful mug valued for craftsmanship and design held affectionately between hands, pulled close to the face, and pressed to lips of the one who truly loves it every day (the mug you will curse over when it breaks) I share my passion for this revolutionary existence.” ~ Alisha Porter
Amanda Straeffer is a ceramic artist from Fort Branch, Indiana. She earned her bachelor’s from the University of Evansville in 2018 then went on to a one-year post baccalaureate program in ceramics at University of Florida. Her current work extends from literal to representational to connect with a diverse audience while also maintaining the continuity of her overall theme—nature and the elements of water and land, and how they interact with each other. She is inspired by Annie Quigley and her use of cut outs to depict nature in a more organic way rather than geometric. While Straeffer’s work has used some variation of this technique in the past, it has evolved from static geometry into more natural designs depicting waves along the tops of vases and bowls.
“My work is made to capture a moment or feeling of the places that I have been in hopes that the viewer could also experience what a specific location is like. Through the use of photographs that I have taken while on the road, I carve texture and cut outs into the pieces to share my experiences and views of these places.” ~Amanda Straeffer
This exhibition is made possible in part by the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gallery Thank You
Leslie Townsend, Director of Community Engagement and Historic New Harmony
As 2020 winds to a close, I want to take this opportunity to thank the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art team for their hard work in this unprecedented year. They are Tonya Lance (Senior Gallery Associate), Tabatha Chinn (Gallery Assistant) and Masor Borowiak (James A. Sanders Gallery Fellow). I especially want to acknowledge Tonya Lance for her dedication and hard work. In addition to the challenges presented by COVID-19, the Gallery has been without a director since Garry Holstein left in January for a new opportunity close to his family in Arkansas. Tonya rose to the occasion and has handled everything from coordinating with the artists on exhibitions and creating virtual versions of many to be viewed online, to installations and de-installations, to marketing the shows. The day-to-day work is too numerous to mention here, but she has done this all, in addition to her own duties and with professionalism and grace. We hope to be fully staffed in early 2021 with a new Gallery Manager on board, but please join me in a big thank you to Tonya, Tabatha and Masor for all they accomplished this year.
DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
Though buying local is always an important investment in your fellow community members, it is especially important this year. When shopping for a one-of-a-kind gift giving experience, be sure to check out the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art’s Gallery Shop. We have over a thousand artworks available providing a selection that will meet almost everyone’s tastes. All purchases are gift wrapped at time of purchase with our hand printed boxes and bags for no additional cost. When you buy artwork, you are supporting individual artists as well as your regional artisan and art communities. Our staff’s top three picks for holiday gifts this year include Laura George Lynch’s doll head pin cushions and planters ranging from $45-$52, Mitzi Davis’s mugs (brown eye, queen bee and war goffer) priced at $80 each and our collection of handcrafted ornaments ranging from $10-$65. Whatever you choose is sure to be an unparalleled gift that is second to none.
NOVEMBER 2020
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
The cup, one of ceramics
more iconic images, has been used as a metaphor, a sculptural element, a sculptural foundation and a functional daily piece of dinnerware. New Harmony Clay Project Director Lenny Dowhie and Program Manager Mitzi Davis have invited several artists to participate in Filled Up. Paul Wandless will serve as juror and decide on award winners. Best in Show will be given the “Overflowing” award of $250, and five Honorable Mentions will receive the “To the Brim” award of $50 each. Whether you choose to fill your cups with beverages, food, pencils or ideology, our goal is to have over 100 handmade “cups” on display at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art’s first annual juried cup show. The exhibit will open December 5 and close on January 29.
This partnership not only opens invitation to new artists to get involved with New Harmony, the Clay Project and the Gallery, but also benefits both organizations missions. All entry fees will be donated to the New Harmony Clay Project (NHCP) to support its mission to foster an environment that supports the investigation of new ideas and work in the ceramic arts. The quantity and quality of ceramic vessels will aid the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in providing access to and encouraging discourse on contemporary art.
The partnership with New Harmony Clay Project began long before this exhibition was planned. The past four years, NHGCA has hosted the NHCP Residency exhibition showcasing resident ceramic artists hosted by the Clay Project for the previous year. This year, we have installed the Blaffer Permanent Collection as a long-term exhibit in our back gallery to be on indefinite display. The Blaffer Foundation is one of the organizations that helps support the New Harmony Clay Project.
The NHCP offers residency programs for a little over half of the year and then in the summer it offers classes to the community. Resident artists are given a stipend, housing and 24-hour access to the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Ceramic Studio in the lawn adjacent to Philip Johnson’s Roofless Church. Residencies range from one to six-month periods. The goal of this residency program is to encourage emerging and professional visual artists and educators in ceramics by giving them quiet space and time to develop a new body of work. Part of the residency agreement stipulates that each resident artist donates a piece from their new body of work to the Blaffer Permanent Collection.
Our close partnership with NHCP has fostered successful ongoing relationships with contemporary ceramicists in our consignment shop as well. Former residents whose work is available in the gallery shop include Blayze Buseth, Tristyn Bustamante, Mitzi Davis, Sydney Ewerth, Misty Gamble, Jeremiah Ibarra, Marina Kuchinski, Kritika Soni, James Webb and Kari Woolsey. We look forward to the growth of our community partnership with the New Harmony Clay Project in the years to come.
OCTOBER 2020
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
While Collective Cure has come to a close, it is available to see online at the gallery website for those who were not able to view it in person.
Mythologies of Memory is now open.
Great and lasting artworks should be ambiguous and tap into the stories and myths humans have used for centuries to explain the world and themselves. Our mythologies are mirrors. Mythologies of Memory, featuring Indiana-based artists Jennifer Ollikainen, Neil Cain and Kipp Normand, looks back and ahead while providing a window into both the real and imagined through familiar mediums and genres filled with icons, symbols and colors.
New Harmony has long influenced these artists and their work. As part of the Social Alchemy project, in partnership with Indianapolis-based Big Car Collaborative, this exhibition taps into the history, existing art and architecture that has made the town a destination while also feeding the creative energy of so many artists and intellectuals for centuries. Mythologies of Memory opened Saturday, October 10, 2020 and will be available to view until November 20,2020
Ollikainen says, “To make masks is to take part in an ancient and rich human tradition. Masks provide a meaningful way for humans to connect with each other, with nature and the unseen realms of spirits. Combined with storytelling, ceremony and ritual, masks have the capacity to fill the spiritual and cultural voids in our modern lives. I strive to use this artform as a tool for connection. I hope to spark wonderment and imagination within the viewer, perhaps allowing them to remember something special they have forgotten. I also see my practice as an opportunity to aid in our collective remembrance of shared histories as a means of reimagining what it is to be human.” Utilizing fabric along with a variety of materials, Ollikainen creates soft sculpture environments and fabricates wearable masks and costumes that come alive through performance and video art—telling stories and creating a dialogue with the viewer.
Cain’s oil paintings are a reaction to what he views as a consciousness bias in our culture towards ordered states of being and thinking. “This bias,” says Cain, “contributes to individualistic resource management, social division and centralized state control. The artist must counteract these forces by presenting harmonious alternatives. I paint to present the beauty of ordered and non-ordered states interacting. I see each as integral to the full expression of the other and essential to true understanding.”
Normand’s cyanotypes are a new medium for this artist and historian. His art is a physical and conceptual investigation into the power of objects and images as a narrative device. Inspired by the Dada traditions of assemblage, collage, construction and performance, Normand employs the acts of appropriation, reuse and recontextualization to explore contemporary perceptions of time, community and memory.
The Social Alchemy project is a multifaceted, multiyear, interdisciplinary project in partnership with Big Car Collaborative, University of Southern Indiana, Historic New Harmony, New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, Working Men’s Institute and Indiana State Museum. This project explores historical and contemporary examples of utopian experiments, fictional utopias and dystopias and social design projects. It offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between the built environment and social good. For more information on the Social Alchemy project visit: https://www.bigcar.org/project/utopia/.
This exhibition is made possible in part by the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.
NHGCA was named as beneficiary of the “Arts Trust Project.
The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced that contributions to the Arts Trust endowment through license plate sales, along with funds from the IAC's appropriation from the Indiana General Assembly, are supporting Arts Project Support grants across the state.
Last year, the IAC issued a survey to plateholders asking what they value most about the arts. Overwhelmingly, plateholders told the IAC they value the way the arts connect their communities.
Each year, one Arts Project Support grant from every county with a project will hold the unique honor of being an Arts Trust License Plate Project. To celebrate the spirit of plateholders, these projects were selected based on their exemplary commitment to bringing their communities together.
"By nature, the arts are resilient, which is what makes them so crucial to our society, especially during trialing times," said IAC Executive Director Lewis Ricci. "This investment by the community for the community is a citizen testament to the arts in Indiana."
As a recipient of the Arts Project Support Grant for the past several years, it is an honor to be recognized as an Arts Trust License Plate Project. We pride ourselves on serving and engaging our community of rural Posey County and the greater Evansville area. The IAC Arts Project Support Grant helps fund our exhibition expenses and exhibiting artist fees. This in turn aids us in fulfilling our mission to provide public access to and encourage discourse on contemporary art.
Those interested in purchasing a "Celebrate the Arts" license plate should visit their local BMV or www.IN.gov/bmv.
Visit https://www.in.gov/arts/files/IAC_2020-ATP-Booklet.pdf to explore FY21 Arts Trust License Plate Projects.
SEPTEMBER 2020
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
Collective Cure is now open and will be available to view through Friday, October 2. We are working toward having a virtual online exhibit to accompany it for those who cannot make it out to view in person.
As the Fall Semester has begun, we welcome our new James Sanders Gallery Fellow, Masor Borowiak. Masor is a senior graphic design and illustration major at USI. She was a student worker in the McCutchan Art Center and Pace Galleries last academic year and has expressed interest in developing marketing media. We have developed a list of projects for her to work on over the semester to both give her the firsthand experience of working in a gallery as well as help her develop practical experience that coincides with her interests, background and future academic and career goals.
A call for entries has now begun for Filled Up. The cup, one of ceramics’ more iconic images, has been used as a metaphor, a sculptural element, a sculptural foundation and a functional daily piece of dinnerware. The New Harmony Clay Project, in cooperation with the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art (NHGCA), a University of Southern Indiana division of Outreach and Engagement, is now accepting entries for its first annual juried cup show set to be exhibited in Historic New Harmony at the NHGCA Saturday, December 5, 2020 to Friday, January 22, 2021. Whether you choose to fill your cups with beverages, food, pencils or ideology, this exhibition will feature more than 100 handmade creations from artists across the country.
Quick Facts:
Exhibition Dates: Saturday, December 5, 2020 to January 22, 2021
Online Application Closes: Saturday, October 31, 2020 (midnight)
Entry Fee: $15 for one to three entries
Notification Begins via Email: November 9 to 11, 2020
Shipped Work Due: November 17 to 24, 2020
Hand-Delivered Work Due: December 1 to 3, 2020
Return Shipping of Unsold Work: January 28 to February 2, 2021
Hand-Delivered Unsold Works Picked Up: January 26 to30, 2021
For more information or to apply go to:
https://www.usi.edu/outreach/new-harmony-gallery-of-contemporary-art/call-for-entries-plus-events/
or
https://www.nhclayproject.org/filled-up
AUGUST 2020
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
The “Minerva: Harmony to Hollywood” exhibit is up through August 15.
“Collective Cure” will run from August 22through October 2 featuring 27 works by 15 regional and international artists. Contemporary art is often birthed from our response to current events. In this time of social distancing, many of us have experienced grief for the life we once had as we struggle to find our new normal. We are all undergoing unique experiences; however, the common denominator is that we are all looking for ways to keep marching on.
Artists to be featured include Brett Anderson, Nisrin Aziz, Jason Balducci, Beata Marcazk, Marie Pervenche Ruiz, Nick Metz, Jill Miller, Brenda Munguia, Laura Foster Nicholson, Megan Rademacher, Carolyn Roth, Megan Thorne, Lot Winther and Igor Zusev.
August Staff Picks:
Consignment artists: Laura Foster Nicholson, Julie Matos, Adena Griffith, Dawn Murtaugh and Keith Armstrong.
Laura Foster Nicholson (LFN) has lovely handmade masks on consignment with us along with her tapestries, canvas mounted weavings, ribbons, purses and shirts. There are currently three styles of masks available: a thin, very breathable covering that reminds people to “Bee Nice” and “Bee Calm,” a pleated black and white digital art print and a pleated mask featuring ribbon designed by Laura.
Laura owns LFN Textiles, designing ribbons and household textiles for companies such as Renaissance Ribbons, Crate & Barrel, Land of Nod, Monticello, Larsen, Inc. and others. She also writes about color and color trending for Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot, and for Pantoneview.com. Her studio is located in New Harmony above New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Julie Matos (Eclectic Redesign) is a middle school special education teacher who lives in the suburbs of Chicago. As an advocate for a greener lifestyle with a passion to recycle, Matos’ jewelry is resourced from ordinary objects that could have been discarded or met their destiny in an already crowded landfill. Her jewelry is fabricated from sourced materials, with the main focus being salvaged copper, vintage tea tins and antique beads.
Adena Griffith (Clay Mama) is a figurative sculptor and functional potter, as well as a ceramic instructor at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center and a mom of four, from Westerville, Ohio. She went back to school at 25 to further her career at the Columbus Zoo. The courses she needed were full, so, by chance, she took an art class. Then she took every art class she could. Her sgraffito mugs have brightened our shop since she first consigned with us last year with her intricate floral and animal motifs.
Dawn Murtaugh is a textile artist, born and raised in the Chicago area and residing in Evansville, Indiana since 2006. She has been an artist all of her life but began her journey as a textile artist 13 years ago. She has deep Midwestern roots in Illinois, Wisconsion and Indiana. Currently, Dawn is making and exhibiting her textile arts in homage to the long line of women, both family and friends, who found ways to create beauty in their everyday life from the simple things of “women’s work.”
With her use of mainly recycled materials, Dawn hopes to bring awareness to the epidemic of pollution caused by the manufacturing processes and waste created by textile manufacturers and consumers. Portions of her sales will be donated to protection of the places she portrays in her art.
Keith Armstrong is a farmer in Gibson County, Indiana. He started turning wood in the late 1970s. With no formal training, Keith learned turning by trial and error, reading and watching demonstrations. The majority of his wood comes from lumber that has no commercial use. He likes to know the history of the wood he is working so he can bring out the beauty in preserving its memory.
In addition to his other vessels and tops, his coffee scoops have been a recent staff favorite.
JULY 2020
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
The staff at New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art are excited to be back open! It was a busy first week back deinstalling Residence IV and installing Minerva: Harmony to Hollywood, as well as resetting the shop displays. Minerva: Harmony to Hollywood is on display now both virtually at nhgallery.com as well as in person through Saturday, August 15. With the deinstall of Residence IV came new additions to the Blaffer Collection housed in our Back Gallery space which features work by previous residents of the New Harmony Clay Project. Keep an eye out for our social media updates including #restockalerts.
With the help of Dan Mason, Assistant Director of Historic New Harmony, the gallery staff recently completed jurying for the upcoming exhibition Collective Cure. This exhibition will showcase a collection of works responding to the global pandemic COVID-19 with a focus on how we as a collective whole can adapt to the world post quarantine with an emphasis on coping with this crisis and moving forward. Collective Cure will run from Saturday, August 22 to Friday, October 2 and feature 27 works by 15 artists both regionally and internationally.
JUNE 2020
Tonya Lance, Senior Gallery Associate
The New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is preparing for its next exhibition Minerva: Harmony to Hollywood juried by Ms. Jennifer Horn. This exhibition will focus on strong female influences that embody the goddess Minerva through the modern lens. Our juror, Jenn Horn, is an Instructor in the English Department at the University of Southern Indiana and teaches a wide variety of courses including Introduction to Folklore, World Mythology, Classical Mythology, and The Body in Art and Culture. Horn is also a skater and Board Member with Evansville’s own Demolition City Roller Derby – a physical-contact sport started and inspired by strong female influences. Although not a visual artist herself, Horn’s diverse background blends visual representations and academic context into a whole picture. The exhibition will be available online July 4 to August 15 and in person in the Gallery July 14 to August 15.
Additionally, we have begun a new call for entries for our August 22-October 2 exhibition titled Collective Cure. This exhibition will be a collection of works responding to the global pandemic, COVID-19. This exhibition will focus on how we, as a collective whole, will adapt to the world post quarantine, with an emphasis on coping with this crisis and moving forward.
For more information go to USI.edu/nhgallery, find us on Facebook and Instagram, or email trlance@usi.edu.
