Posted on June, 26 2014
Four area artists will exhibit artwork inside a DART bus, beginning today, in a pilot project “Art on DART.”
Sculpture, works on paper and paintings will be showcased in gallery-like displays on the interior of DART bus 1033. The bus will rotate throughout DART services as usual with location updates on Twitter (follow @ridedart). The exhibition will run Thursday, June 26, through Aug. 17.
Local artist and Art on DART curator, Edward Kelley, envisions artwork as something to be shared in unique spaces. Murals are great, museums are wonderful, advertisements clever, but what happens when art shares our daily routine? Art on DART is a sharing of artwork in an everyday setting.
The project and exhibition were organized by artists Edward Kelley and Emily Newman with help from The Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation and DART.
About the Artwork
Rachel Buse
Underfoot
2014
Hand-sewn bed sheet over quilt batting and chicken wire
The foot is a practical part of the body designed to help us balance upright off the ground. It moves us forward. Thinking about the idea of a commute, I used a foot to symbolize our movement from one place to the next. Everyday we join a collective migration. Each of us following a routine allowing us to make money, get food, socialize, go to school etc. During the ride to and from our destination, we have time to think about what is going to happen next. We can read, daydream, have a conversation, listen to music or reflect on what just happened. The time in between is a kind of limbo. It’s an unavoidable space in the day. It can be useful and at times a burden. When you’re feeling late, or something unplanned has interrupted the flow of events, the commute can become a chore. There is always the possibility of something getting caught underfoot. The unanticipated parts of our day remind us to stay alert and aware of where we are and where we’re going.
Making art helps me look closer at how I am interpreting things observed and experienced. Internally, I tend to exaggerate the shape and color of the surrounding world; it’s scale, how it smells or what it sounds like. These distortions feel very real, despite how it might appear to others. Being able to share that perspective and have someone else see it and also maybe recognize it is part of my process and motivation for building sculpture. --Rachel Buse
Benjamin Gardner
in praise of shadows
2014
Cedar, found wood, acrylic, and graphite
in praise of shadows is a sort of sundial that doesn't really tell time, but rather relates to its placement in public transportation. With hands as the shadow-casting elements, the piece will change as both the sun moves (or is behind clouds) and as the bus moves on its routes. Public spaces can often be window-less, functional and unconsidered in design yet buses have large windows that allow in light (and, inversely, cast shadows). The title is taken from a book by Jun'ichiro Tanazaki of the same name that differentiates the modern Western obsession with light and clarity from Eastern aesthetics and their embracing of nuance and the varied tones of shadows. The hands also reference human work and labor as an important part of defining our personhood. As a human invention, the sundial allows a small way for us to place ourselves in time and space. -- Benjamin Gardner
Gary Hoff
Triptych 2011 (3 bottles)
Oil on board
Images of dawn, day, and twilight as reflected and refracted through a small bottle on the studio windowsill.
An important part of my work is exploration of light and color and how they change and interact. Using simple subjects in natural light, these paintings show how sunlight through a window can evolve, day by day and hour by hour. Many of these little paintings involve sunlight playing across a single small object. The composition of these works is important as well, allowing an exploration of spatial relationships, reflected and transmitted light, and the abstract patterns that result. The size of these paintings (8x10 or smaller) means I can devote time to thoughtful observation and slow, considered painting yet finish the work in a fairly short period. My medium is traditional oil paint. -- Gary Hoff
Emily Newman
Wiggle to Make Room
2014
Pencil and thread on Dura-lar
The objects and images I create begin their existence in three-dimensional form. Either they remain in this state or return to two-dimensions during the process of drawing. “Wiggle to Make Room” explores my interest in how I see between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space, between image and object, and whether or not this experience is one of the same.
The original twenty-five foot drawing was produced by tracing the shadows of a fabricated expanded metal lath sculpture. An exercise in observation and investigation between the push and pull of formal visual elements; space, line and form. The drawing was recycled and used as a departure to work abstractly and formally. The use of pencil in “Wiggle to Make Room” suggests visual images of snake skin, fencing, nets and fabric, while cutting, sewing and pinning are used highlight the tangible qualities of the work. The push and pull between two-dimensional and three-dimensional processes allows me to investigate the spatial relationship between an object and its image. -- Emily Newman
About the Artists
Rachel Buse is an artist who lives and works in Des Moines. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 2008. Using fiber materials and found objects, she builds exaggerated bodies and sculptural installations. In 2013, her works exhibited at the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Grandview University in Des Moines and at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames. Buse manages ART BEACON Des Moines, an online resource dedicated to promoting the arts in central Iowa. She also teaches at the Des Moines Art Center, ArtForce Iowa and in the After School Art Program (ASAP).
Benjamin Gardner was born in Northern Illinois. Recent exhibitions include The Soothsayer at Box 13 Artspace in Houston, TX, Above and Below at Wright State University in Dayton, OH, and The House of the Seven Gables at University Galleries in Normal, IL. Gardner has also worked with DUSK Editions in Brooklyn, NY, and will exhibit works on paper at Gallery Molly Krom in New York this fall. He teaches drawing and Drake University and lives and works in Des Moines.
Gary Hoff began painting after a gift of oil paint. While still in high school, he earned a professional diploma in product illustration, using those skills to illustrate a technical textbook as a teenager. Hoff continued painting and drawing following completion of a university degree and a period of military service, eventually attending medical school. Despite the rigors of medical training and practice, he continued his art education with a number of mentors, including William Whitaker, Max Ginsburg and Roberts Howard. Hoff paints in a contemporary realist style, showing and selling through the midwest and in Manhattan at the prestigious Salmagundi Art Club in Greenwich Village. He lives and works in Des Moines.
Emily Newman is an artist and educator from southern Colorado. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 2010 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 2005. Her work has recently been shown at Fluxx Gallery in Des Moines, at the Sioux City Arts Center and at the Majestic Galleries in Nelsonville, Ohio. In 2014, Emily’s artwork was commissioned for the first community supported art subscription service in Des Moines. Emily teaches part-time in the Department of Art and Design at Drake University.
About the Curator
Edward Kelley is an artist and educator from South Carolina. Edward has shown locally at Fluxx gallery with upcoming exhibitions at Box 13 Artspace in Houston TX and Sculpture on the Grounds at the State University of New York Oswego. Edward received a MFA in sculpture from Syracuse University in 2005 and a BA from the College of Charleston in 1999. He currently works as sculpture technician and instructor at Drake University.
For More Information
DART encourages riders to tweet or post using #artondart.
For more information about the exhibition “Art on DART” or DART services, please call Customer Service at 515-283-8100 or email dart@ridedart.com.