The Merwin and Wakeley Galleries

Galleries closed for summer

Upcoming Exhibitions - Fall 2024

September 9 – October 16

(Galleries closed for fall break 10/11)
Saturday Homecoming reception 10/5, 1-3PM in the galleries

MERWIN – Embroidering Histories. The Chilean Arpilleras  1973 to 2023
WAKELEY – Too Familiar Tim Kowalczyk (trompe l'oeil ceramicist)

Reception and artist talk: Tuesday, September 24, 3PM

 

Merwin Gallery
Embroidering Histories. The Chilean Arpilleras 
1973 to 2023 
- From the collection of Marjorie Agosin - 

Arpilleras are a powerful Chilean art form - so much more than a "charming" or quaint appliqué. Layers of sackcloth or burlap fabric (arpillera) were joined, principally through appliqué, to create multi-dimensional (in layers and meaning) works of protest and resistance. 
More than 50 years ago, the armed forces of Chile overthrew the administration of Salvador Allende. That day, September 11, 1973, created the necessary conditions in which this art form known as arpilleras was born. 
Soon after, these textiles became the most visual, poignant, and widespread manifestation of violations of human rights, the disappearance of loved ones, opposition to authoritarianism, all things associated with the military government that ruled Chile until 1990. 
Marjorie Agosin, world renowned Chilean poet, has loaned IWU’s Merwin Gallery a selection of arpilleras from her personal collection. All the pieces are anonymous for the sake of security of the artists at the time of creation. These arpilleras are part of the collective of the Association of the Detained and the Missing.  - University of New Mexico. Latin American & Iberian Institute.  "Stitching Resistance: The History of Chilean Arpilleras"

“The Arpilleras are story tellers, for it is through them that these women have recorded and preserved the memory of a period of Chilean history that many others have chosen to forget” 
 - Marjorie Agosín’

Marjorie Agosín is a poet, human rights activist, and literary critic. Marjorie is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Spanish at Wellesley College.  She is interested in Jewish literature and literature of human rights in the Americas; women writers of Latin America; migration, identity, and ethnicity. In recognition of her corpus of poetry, fiction, memoir, and literary criticism, Agosín has earned repeated literary awards, including the Letras de Oro Prize, the Latina Literatura Prize, International Latino Award, Mexican Cultural Institute Prize, and Peabody Award, among others. She has also "won numerous honors in recognition of her work as a human rights activist, including the United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights, the Jeanette Rankin Award in Human Rights, and years after she left her homeland the Chilean government honored her with the Gabriela Mistral Medal for Lifetime Achievement" (UMass Boston)

 

Wakeley Gallery
Too Familiar
Tim Kowalczyk

Tim Kowalczyk was born and raised in Morris, IL. He was the first college student in his
immediate family. He attended Joliet junior College and transferred to Southern Illinois University Carbondale to complete his BFA in Ceramics and Art Education with a minor in Art History. Tim obtained his MFA from Illinois State University in Normal, IL in Ceramics.

Tim has been in national, invitational, and international group and solo exhibitions since 2009.  He is currently represented by Companion Gallery and Black Book Gallery. He is part of a 3 man ceramic group making trompe l’oeil work called the Mo Fauxs. Tim does a variety of demonstrations and workshops around the United States and Virtually. He has been featured on several podcasts, websites, and is featured in books and magazines. Tim currently lives in Minonk where he has a home studio and works as an Art teacher at Fieldcrest High School. 

"Using clays, slips, underglazes, and glaze I use various handbuilding, slipcasting, underglaze and glaze applications to create trompe l’oeil objects. Sculptural objects to functional items I try to blur the line between overlooked ordinary objects and my ceramic objects. Using ceramic materials and ceramic techniques with a variety of applications I mean for my objects to look like garbage. Through faux marks, tapes, labels, stains, paint splatters, and a myriad of other rips, tears, and cuts I am trying to construct an fictitious narrative of the objects I create. These
narratives refer to the usage of the recreated materials or objects and their new purpose."
- Tim Kowalczyk

October 21 – December 5
(galleries closed for Thanksgiving recess November 26- December 1)

Merwin Gallery

 Fred Brian: Lake Gogebic Memories and Myths 
DeVos Art Museum Director and Curator Emily Lanctot and DeVos Collectons Curator Sydney Sarasin curated this exhibition with production assistance from Philip Kucera and Holle Brian.

Wakeley Gallery

She/Her  Sara Sally LaGrand - sculptural glass portraits

Closing reception and artist talk for both exhibits: Thursday, December 5th at 3PM

 

 

Click here to visit iwuart and see what our students have been making recently.

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Gallery Hours 

Monday - Friday 12-4PM
Tuesday Evening 7-9PM
Saturday & Sunday 1-4PM

Location

Ames School of Art and Design
Illinois Wesleyan University
6 Ames Plaza West
Bloomington, Illinois 61701-2900

Artists interested in showing at our galleries click the link below for more information

All events are free and open to the public

 

About the Galleries

The Merwin and Wakeley Galleries provide exhibition schedules that support our curriculum, the University community and the general public. These exhibitions mostly consist of contemporary artworks in all media. Each exhibition is meant to suggest the variety of visual approaches one may choose to present an idea. Student exhibitions include the Annual Juried School of Art Student Exhibition, the B.F.A. Candidate Exhibition and the B.F.A. and B.A. Degree Exhibition.

About the Galleries / Artist Submissions