Contact: Jason A. Smith, communications director, or Jody Clowes, exhibitions manager / 608-265-2500
New side-by-side solo exhibitions open January 13 @ James Watrous Gallery:
Thomas Gaudynski: Object Syntax
Brandon Norsted: The Purchase of Deep Water
MADISON– Solo exhibitions by Wisconsin artists Brandon Norsted and Thomas Gaudynski will be on view beginning Tuesday, January 13, at the Wisconsin Academy’s James Watrous Gallery, located on the 3rd floor of Overture Center for the Arts in Madison. Details are as follows:
Exhibition dates: January 13 – March 1, 2015
Opening reception (free and open to the public): Friday, January 16, 5:30-7:30 pm, with informal gallery talks by both artists at 6:30 pm.
EXHIBITION DESCRIPTIONS
Thomas Gaudynski: Object Syntax
Thomas Gaudynski’s drawings riff off the still-life tradition, combining studies of furniture, knick-knacks, and oddments from his home into “object salads” that offer hints of autobiography and tantalizing references to literature and the artist’s process. Each drawing’s lovely jumble of mostly ordinary things invites close examination, encouraging the viewer to search for patterns and connections. Richly suggestive, they offer hints of Gaudynski’s history and passions yet resist narrative interpretation. Beautifully drawn, they shine an affectionate light on the accumulated goods that define contemporary home life.
A Milwaukee native known for his work in electronic and improvised electro-acoustic music, Gaudynski is also a writer whose book “Artifacts: Essays on Music + Art + Design” was published in 2001. More biographical information can be found at wisconsinacademy.org/
Brandon Norsted: The Purchase of Deep Water
Brandon Norsted transforms architectural woodwork and domestic objects into the stuff of art, shifting them from their mundane status as homeowner’s projects and problems into strange new realms of beauty and meaning. Trained as a furnituremaker, Norsted has worked with materials as varied as moving blankets, mylar insulation, downed trees, and fragments of old chairs. He is fascinated with the layers of meaning carried by ordinary objects. By recontextualizing these in his sculpture, he seeks to make the familiar strange again and hint at the subtle ways we see without truly looking.
Norsted lives in Madison, where he maintains a non-commercial backyard art space that, in his words, “has not earned him a dollar, but many new friends.” More biographical information can be found at wisconsinacademy.org/
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Wisconsin Arts Board, with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. The James Watrous Gallery also receives ongoing support from Doubletree Hotel-Madison and the members of the nonprofit Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
About the James Watrous Gallery
Free and open to the public, the James Watrous Gallery is a program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, an independent, nonprofit organization that seeks to inspire discovery, illuminate creative work, and foster civil dialogue. The gallery’s primary focus is the work of contemporary Wisconsin visual artists. We also present exhibitions that explore the history of art in Wisconsin or topics that bridge the sciences, arts, and humanities. Our goals are to support Wisconsin visual art and artists through quality exhibitions and programs, to provide opportunities for viewers to actively engage in the visual arts, and to encourage a spirit of inquiry.
For gallery hours and more information on exhibiting artists, please visit wisconsinacademy.org/gallery or call 608-265-2500.
