FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2003
The Museum of Texas Tech University is delighted to announce the showing of the exhibition Enhancements: Hand-Crafted Functional Objects in its Special Exhibitions Gallery. The Museum is located at Fourth Street and Indiana Avenue. Enhancements will be on display through May 18 and admission is free of charge.
The essence of craft is the celebration of objects that serve a utilitarian as well as an aesthetic function. Enhancements is a survey of beautiful, unique works that fulfill functional requirements. It features 120 objects by 30 contemporary artists in a wide variety of media, including glass, wood, metal, fiber, paper, and leather. Some objects are simple and unpretentious, while others are elaborate and ornate. All are able to perform some utilitarian service while also displaying artistic qualities of beauty, invention, and masterful technique.
Craft has often been seen as hand labor devoid of intellectual content and disparaged by practitioners of the fine arts. In the 19th century, the Arts and Crafts Movement attempted to bridge the gap between the fine and applied arts, but with little success. Since the 1960s, ceramics, glasswork, metalwork, textiles, and other industrial arts have enjoyed a resurgence in practice and a newfound respect. While the gulf between the fine and applied arts has not been entirely bridged, crafts have come into their own in recent years.
Excellent examples of hand-crafted functional objects include the elegant basket forms of Darryl and Karen Arawjo, and the whimsical Bottle Cap Chair by Christopher Ellison. Among other featured work are baskets by Kari Lonning, textiles by Ellen Kochansky, furniture by Peter Maynard, porcelain by Wil Shynkaruk, and functional sculpture by Tom Torren.
This exhibition is curated by Robert Logan and Robert Cugno, directors of the Media Gallery in Garnett, Kansas. Enhancements represents both the culmination of the curators' fascination with contemporary craft and an outstanding survey of some of the finest work being done today in the applied arts. The exhibition is accompanied by a brochure with an essay by Judith McNally Warner of the New Mexico Academy for Sciences and Mathematics in Santa Fe.
Enhancements: Hand-Crafted Functional Objects is a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, that is generously supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, Phillips Petroleum Corporation, the Louis and Elizabeth Flarsheim Trust, Sprint, The William T. Kemper Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the H & R Block Foundation, the Cooper Foundation, the Richard Florsheim Art Fund, the Embassy of Australia, Washington, D.C., and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
For more information or to request
special assistance, contact the Museum Education office at (806)742-2432,
or email to museum.education@ttu.edu.