Chrysler Museum of Art transforms gallery into a dark and glittering cosmos
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, December 12, 2024


Chrysler Museum of Art transforms gallery into a dark and glittering cosmos
Lauren Fensterstock, The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk, 2020 (Installation Detail View) Glass, Swarovski crystal, quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite, paper, Plexiglas, wood, cement, lath, and mixed media. Commissioned by The Renwick Galleries of the Smithsonian American Art Museum for the 2020 Renwick Invitational, on loan from Claire Oliver Gallery, NY and the Artist. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Claire Oliver Gallery. Photo by Albert Ting.



NORFOLK, VA.- Lauren Fensterstock’s The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk, on view at the Chrysler Museum of Art Jan. 15–June 19, 2022, invites visitors to come face to face with a dark and ominous cosmic landscape. A black comet—encrusted with a dazzling mosaic of glass, crystals, and stones including onyx and hematite—hovers at eye level and bursts through a collection of dark clouds; rain falls in streams of glass and crystal beads, pooling on the ground into puddles of reflective black Plexiglas and surrounded by an earthy black landscape dotted with paper plant forms.

This installation is the first in Fensterstock’s newest body of work, which reflects how humans have manipulated the natural world to express their cultures, views and values. Her works explore how weather and celestial activity have been used as a metaphor, which is an especially potent idea in our current age of extreme weather and changing climate. Although this new direction came before COVID-19, the foreboding and destabilizing beauty of Fensterstock’s work takes on additional meaning amidst the devastating global pandemic.

The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk was originally commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery for its 2020 invitational exhibition Forces of Nature. Fensterstock was one of four artists selected for the Renwick Invitational, a prestigious biennial series that aims to introduce the work of exceptional artists who are established in their respective craft fields yet are worthy of greater recognition. The installation was meant to be on view at the Renwick Gallery June 2020–Feb. 2021, but the exhibition was delayed and then open for only a short time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.




“We are thrilled to bring this mesmerizing installation to the Hampton Roads region,” says Carolyn Swan Needell, Ph.D., the Chrysler Museum’s Carolyn and Richard Barry curator of glass, “Lauren Fensterstock’s work is a brilliant combination of minute detail and great scale, and her work invites the viewer to look closely and think deeply about the role humans play within the earthly and cosmic landscapes.”

Trained as a metalsmith, Fensterstock creates tactile sculptures and large-scale installations that are labor-intensive and materially seductive. She uses techniques that have long histories in the fields of craft and decorative arts, techniques that are also often called “women’s arts.” This includes paper cutting, quilling, mosaic and shellwork. Fensterstock’s early artworks centered on conversations about adornment, beauty, preciousness and ephemerality. These ideas developed over the years and now manifest in her recent works, which “explore the narratives we develop to find meaning in nature and the landscapes we fabricate to situate ourselves in the world,” the artist says.

In her investigations of the storms brewing all around us, Fensterstock sources an eclectic mix of references that includes classical Zen texts, medieval European illuminations and Leonard Cohen songs as guides in reading these portents. The newest addition to the artist’s rich catalog of influences is The Book of Miracles, a sixteenth-century luxury manuscript that belongs to a category of apocalyptic albums. This type of publication became popular as more people began reading the Bible in the wake of the development of the printing press. The Book of Miracles details a wide range of events marked by extreme natural conditions, which were believed to be the result of divine intervention: the deluge that necessitated Noah’s ark, plagues of locusts, skies with multiple suns, stars falling from heaven and snow in summer. One image—a fiery comet appearing at the time of Muhammad’s birth over the city of Constantinople—serves as a key reference for The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk.

Needell notes that Fensterstock’s signature all-black color palette “trains our eyes to see objects and details in a very different way, giving viewers a unique path to reflect upon the overall meaning of the work.” Fensterstock’s work demands close looking, with its dense surface patterns and shiny dark surfaces that throw glimpses of light. The artist says that the highly decorative surfaces of her sculptures “highlight the beauty of a world that may at times be indifferent to us, but is nonetheless beautiful in its complexity.” She harnesses the various material elements in her works to refer to scrying, a practice that uses dark and reflective surfaces to see visions of the future. “With so much turmoil on the ground, I've turned my eyes to the sky for wisdom. Moody storms. Ominous comets. Dying stars,” comments Fensterstock. “Weather events and celestial sightings are a historically rich location for the projection of human anxiety, hopes, and fears.”

This artwork was commissioned by The Renwick Galleries of the Smithsonian American Art Museum for the 2020 Renwick Invitational, on loan from Claire Oliver Gallery, NY and the Artist.










Today's News

January 15, 2022

Hugh Hayden, surrealist sculptor, addresses the education debate

Dutch Royals to retire golden coach with echoes of colonialism

Christie's announces highlights included in the Old Master and British Drawings Online Sale

First solo exhibition of Roy DeCarava's work in London in over thirty years opens at David Zwirner

The MSU Broad presents 'Kahlo Without Borders'

Spider-Man's black costume origin sells for $3.36 million at Heritage Auctions to shatter comic art record

Jeff Wall presents a group of "near documentary" realist pictures at Gagosian

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art opens an exhibition of works by Bice Lazzari

Landmark exhibition of African American art opens at Toledo Museum of Art

She was named Europe's best director, but finds few fans at home

Shannon's Internet Fine Art Auction, now thru January 20th

Action Comics #1 copy sells for $3.18 million, setting record for third most expensive comic of all-time

"This Tender, Fragile Thing" opens at The School

BAMPFA's Senior Curator for Asian Art Julia White to retire after fifteen years

BIPOC Award recipients showcased in exhibition honoring remarkable Texas ceramicists

Chrysler Museum of Art transforms gallery into a dark and glittering cosmos

Mick Peter brings playful cartoon-like sculpture installations to Bath's Holburne Museum

Painting by Julie Hart Beers climbs to $20,000 in Bruneau & Co online auction

Edward Kirkland, who helped preserve historic Chelsea, dies at 96

Brian Gross Fine Art opens an exhibition of medium and large-scale photoworks by Keira Kotler

Camden Art Centre opens an exhibition of works by Allison Katz

How to check what motherboard I have?

10 news apps for you to stay more informed

5 Ways to Sell Your Art




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful