The CU Art Museum, now located in the Visual Arts Complex, boasts five galleries, state-of-the-art storage facilities and an all new design. Three exhibits are currently showing. (CU Independent/Eric McCune)
Through the glass doors of the Visual Arts Complex sits an artistic oasis abundant with ancient ceramics, modern architecture and everything in between.
Inside the newly built CU Art Museum, students can saunter from room to room. The stillness and silence, along with the large bright, white walls, creates an eerie, even exhilarating aura to the gallery.
Each room hosts a particular theme, which is portrayed through the various types of artwork divided into three exhibits: “archiTECHtonica,” “A Common Thread: The Fall 2010 MFA Thesis Exhibition” and “The Highlights of the Collection.”
The gallery has a wide variety of art and stylistic techniques, and there seems to be something for everyone.
In “The Highlights of the Collection” sector, there is a clear theme of culture and race in each piece of art. From photographs to sculptures, each piece presents a new way of interpreting racial and ethnic culture.
On the far right side wall of the room hangs a wave-like pattern of dryer lint with black block lettered words sprawled across the banner. Entitled, “‘Mea Culpa: Buenos Aires’ 1976, 1999,” created by American artist Mary Kelly, this piece of unconventional and simplistic artwork unexpectedly stirs up a lot of emotion with its bold word choice.
The exhibit’s overwhelming feeling of culture and its historical significance can be captured in the encased “female helmet mask” belonging to the Mende people of Sierra Leone, West Africa. Made of bombax wood by an unidentified artist, this antique provides a real sense of the richness in African culture.
To the left of the long corridor marked as “The Highlights of the Collection,” sit two separate rooms, each with a completely different idea of art.
In the “archiTECHtonica” exhibit, distinctive art forms are shown; each artist showcases their particular lens on how architecture and landscape affect the world.
Constructed of blue and clear glass bottles, along with metal frame posts, a house-like structure sits atop a pedestal. Hailing from Berkeley, Calif., it is artist Mildred Howard who has created this structure, putting her own idealistic interpretation into the architecture.
In the final corner room of the gallery sits the most exceptional exhibit, “A Common Thread.” This room harbors a primitive feel, as painting and sketches of bears and rabbits surround the walls. Directly in the center of the room sits a large hut, covered by an animal fur quilt. The hot pink bearskin that lies under the tent adds to the mood of the room as if transforming it into a Native American village – a unique one at that.
Although “A Common Thread” exhibit ends Nov. 18 and the “archiTECHtonica” exhibit ends Dec. 18, “The Highlights of the Collection” will remain until June 2011.
CU Independent Staff Writer Victoria Vargas at Victoria.vargas@colorado.edu.
