Eating Wonderland: Recent Works by Sue Johnson February 8 to June 15, 2008 Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature University of Richmond Museums The Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, presents Eating Wonderland: Recent Work by Sue Johnson, on view February 8 through June 15, 2008. In her latest artwork, contemporary Maryland artist Sue Johnson (American, born 1957) addresses themes of food, consumption, marketing, and mass production in her ceramic castings of dinnerware and popular foodstuffs. Along with her paintings on paper and digital collages, this exhibition features work that explores the creation and use of imagery in popular culture, the influence of context on these images, and how simple manipulations can result in humor, aversion, and complex commentaries on contemporary society.
Born in San Francisco, Johnson received her B.F.A. in studio art from Syracuse University and her M.F.A. in painting from Columbia University. She has had one-person exhibitions at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, New York; Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York; and a traveling exhibition organized by the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth. She has received several national grants, fellowships, and residencies including the Arts/Industry Program, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; the City of Salzburg/Salzburg Künstlerhaus Residency Fellowship, Salzburg, Austria; the American Philosophical Society, André Michaux Library Research Fellowship, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship Award. Johnson is presently Professor of Art in the Department of Art and Art History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Eating Wonderland presents publicly for the first time a selection of three-dimensional work that Johnson created in the Arts/Industry, a long-term residency program of the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and funded by Kohler Company, Kohler, Wisconsin. Johnson’s participation resulted in a series titled Incredible Edibles, which consists of ceramic castings of objects imbued with nostalgia and commercialism related to eating, such as TV-dinner trays and figurines of characters from advertising like the Pillsbury Doughboy and Sprout, the young companion to the Jolly Green Giant. The accompanying series Episodes in a Fantastic Landscape, comprised of mixed media two- dimensional images, likewise focuses on issues of food and consumption and includes fantasy elements, and a sense of impending violence or doom lurks within each piece. Finally, her over 16-foot wide painting New Stories from Wonderland (Life of the Dodo), created specifically for this exhibition, merges all of these themes while including specific references to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and commentary on the environment. Eating Wonderland: Recent Work by Sue Johnson was organized by the University of Richmond Museums and curated by N. Elizabeth Schlatter, Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions, University of Richmond Museums, with assistance from the artist. The exhibition has been made possible in part with funding from the University of Richmond’s Cultural Affairs Committee. The work of Sue Johnson can also be viewed in the group exhibition 3D Multiples: The Object of Production, March 7 through 29, 2008, at 1708 Gallery, Richmond. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Command Print: The Southern Graphics Council Conference hosted by the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Painting and Printmaking. Programs Thursday, February 7, 2008, 7 to 9 p.m. - 7 p.m., Lecture, Alice Haynes Reception Room, Tyler Haynes Commons The Secret Life of Objects, Sue Johnson, artist in the exhibition, Eating Wonderland: Recent Work by Sue Johnson - 8 to 9 p.m., Reception and preview of the exhibition Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums Free and open to the public Friday, February 8, 2008, 2 to 4 p.m. Artmaking Workshop, Surrealist Gaming Sue Johnson, artist featured in the exhibition, Eating Wonderland: Recent Work by Sue Johnson Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums Free and open to the public, please register by calling 804-287-6324 or email hcampbel@richmond.edu