Work by Deetz, Emmons selected for ‘Wisconsin Triennial’ at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Art and Design Prof. Kristy Deetz and Prof. Emerita Carol Emmons are two of 37 artists selected for the 2016 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. They were chosen from more than 600 artists. This is Deetz’s second consecutive appearance in the Triennial, and Emmons’s eighth selection. Deetz is exhibiting work from the Holidays Unfolding series, an extension of her Veil Paintings that incorporate patterned and painted fabric. Blending fine art and textile crafts, she explores the folds and creases of her fabrics, which are embellished with stitching. These paintings feature topsy-turvy objects and animals in antic motion that replace the inanimate objects of the traditional still life, yet parallel the original genre as meditations on mortality and life’s transience.

Emmons created Cosmogony 2.1, a new installation (environment), for the Triennial. It imagines the cosmos as issuing from a tinkerer’s somewhat unsteady hand in a structure simultaneously reminiscent of a puppet theatre, diorama, circus wagon, storage shed, and film set. The work combines varied creation narratives and approaches to knowledge such as alchemy and astrology. It strives to reflect the prosaic and seemingly jury-rigged aspects of the cosmos while nevertheless embracing the poetry of existence. The exhibition opens with a public reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23 and continues until Jan. 8, 2017. Click here for more information.