This year’s Women’s History Month Exhibition at Elmhurst College will feature the work of artist Rebecca Wolfram.
The exhibition, Gilgamesh: A Drawing Installation, consists of large mixed-media drawings that depict scenes from the ancient Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. The exhibit opens March 1 in the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace.
Wolfram’s theme was inspired by the Kevatron particle accelerator that is housed in the Accelerator ArtSpace. While an obvious contrast exists between the extreme antiquity of the epic poem and the modern world represented by the accelerator, there are ways in which the two exemplify some of the same concepts. Both, Wolfram feels, attempt to answer the big questions about the future of the universe.
“The Elmhurst College Accelerator holds a fascination for almost every artist I have ever taken to the ArtSpace,” said Suellen Rocca, curator and director of exhibits for the College. “Rebecca Wolfram was so inspired by the Kevatron machine that she has spent the last six months creating a completely new body of work for this exhibition. Comprising a series of 6-foot-high drawings, her work combines the influences of science and literature. I eagerly anticipate seeing Wolfram’s vision come alive in this very special exhibition.”
Rebecca Wolfram is a Chicago-based artist who has been working for more than 25 years. Her works often employ a dark, organic color palette of yellows and browns, and aim to portray the ideas of internal struggle and the questioning of cultural practices. Some of her paintings show clear and direct messages, while others rely on viewer interpretation. Wolfram’s work is known for addressing difficult subjects within society. Much of her art stems from her cross-cultural experiences as an English as a Second Language teacher and world traveler.
Gilgamesh: A Drawing Installation can be viewed from Saturday, March 1, through Saturday, March 29, in the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace at Elmhurst College. Viewing hours are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 12:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. An artist’s reception will be held on Tuesday, March 4, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The artist’s talk begins at 5:00 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. For more information, call (630) 617-3390.
A one-of-a-kind gallery, the Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator ArtSpace displays professional and student artwork in a onetime physics lab. Even after the lab was converted into a raw exhibition space, it continued to house a 750,000-volt proton accelerator. First used by the University of Chicago during the early days of atomic weapons research, the “atom smasher” was moved to Elmhurst College in 1969. It became operational in 1973 and was fired up by the Physics Department for the better part of 30 years.
Elmhurst College hosts approximately 12 art shows each year in three campus venues. In addition, the College’s A.C. Buehler Library permanently houses the College’s unparalleled collection of Chicago Imagist and Abstractionist Art, which explores the vibrant, often outrageous, yet precisely crafted works of Chicago artists between 1950 and the present. For more information, please contact Suellen Rocca at (630) 617-6110 or srocca@elmhurst.edu.