Thursday, April 19 the University of Wyoming Art Museum will be hosting an open gallery walkthrough and meet and greet with artist Jon Lodge who will be discussing his artwork, the materials he used and the purpose behind his work.
Lodge’s gallery entitled “Interface” is currently open for viewing and will be displayed through August 11. The walkthrough starts at 10:30 a.m. at the South Two Gallery.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring someone whose practicing making art in this way,” Katie Christensen, curator of education and statewide engagement at Centennial Complex said. “[Lodge will] share his inspirations, his stories, the historical context and what he has done with this traditional medium, but in a really new and inventive sort of way.”
Lodge went to The Berkeley College of Music in the 1960s and studied jazz performance and jazz composition. He eventually met his road to art productions in Billings, Montana where he owned a company called Art Craft Printers, which printed high-end art catalogs. He also found himself making visual arts out of the contemporary commercial printing process.
“One of the things that he says is ‘you know it’s really hard actually, we think these things look so simple but it’s actually really hard to make something look so minimal, so simple,’” Christensen said. “You can hear him talk more about what kind of philosophical or conceptual approach he takes in making his work.”
Art Museum’s former Director and Chief Curator Susan Moldenhauer set the wheels in motion to bring Lodge to UW. The Exhibition Coordinator Kayle Avery, Chief Curator Nicole Crawford and Christensen made a team effort to bring the exhibition as well as the artist to UW this week.
UW Art Museum staff created a visiting artist program where the staff members try to bring two artists every semester to create more resources for students and help them with their queries and thoughts about various types of art.
On Wednesday, April 18 Lodge will be giving a seminar class with an Advance Drawing Class carried out by Professor Shelby Shadwell and 3D Modelling Class taught by Brandon Gellis. Lodge will also be presenting to the class about his artwork and the focus of his gallery. Along with it, the senior portfolio class will also get a chance to meet him.
“So that’s a great opportunity for students on campus to have a one on one intimate talk with him to learn about his process, to ask questions about how he became an artist, how he is working and what he is doing,” Christensen said. “Anything from the practical how I make this to the applicable of how I sustain myself as an artist?”
Lodge’s Ambient Air Motion Drawing will be featured in the gallery, where he built an apparatus and used it to create the piece.
“He kinda controlled how it (the apparatus) works but then the ambient, the air, that’s the part he doesn’t have control over so it’s kind of a mix of control and random, which our life is a lot like that,” Christensen said. “So, he is using structure and play in a lot of his work.”
After the walkthrough, there will also be a live material demonstration in the Art Museum lobby, where he is going to teach the participants/visitors how he built some of his conceptual pieces and the visitors can actually build with the help of the staff members at the museum.
“I think students need to have a different view of different types of artwork, not all artwork is realistic or representational,” Jordan Sauer, art education major said. “There is a lot more abstract artwork which is something that a lot of people don’t understand or don’t get but a lot of what [Lodge] does is process based. That’s really important for people in order to understand that art is not just about subject matter, it’s also about how you are making it. I think that’s what his artwork is more about: the process rather than the actual outcome.”
