Written by John Finn 330-263-2145 Email Story | Print Story

August 15, 2003

“Camping” by Irina Nakhova

Budd, formerly of Scotland and now a member of the faculty at the University of Akron, will present a one-person exhibition titled “Honey”— a collection of 12 diminutive wax sculptures — in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery. According to exhibition curator and museum director, Kitty McManus Zurko, Budd’s sculpture “has retained three constants over the years: wax as a primary medium, the body as subject, and a proclivity for creating reductive objects that have a preternaturally stark beauty. From bulging bellies and truncated figures to hollow dress forms, her works tweak cultural assumptions about the value-laden concept of ‘beauty.’“

In this exhibition, luminous wax humanoid forms sport ribbons and bows while others are paired with an alchemist’s mix of hair, lead wool, and salt. “By using the female form as a vehicle in her carved wax sculpture, Budd visualizes cultural anxieties about a most problematical topic.” says Zurko.

Budd is a 2003 recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and has had one-person exhibitions at the Akron Art Museum, the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, and the Hoyt Institute in New Castle, Pa.

Nakhova, a member of the younger generation of Russian non-conformist artists known as the Moscow Conceptual School, will display her paintings and sculpture in an exhibit titled “When will You be Home?” in the Sussel Gallery.

Born and educated in Moscow, and now a resident of Sea Girt, N.J., Nakhova has had a long and distinguished career with numerous solo exhibitions in Moscow, Austria, Estonia, Chicago, and London. She is an installation artist and an academically trained painter who “parlays art historical references into interactive environments that are humorous and poignant,” according to exhibition curator Marina Mangubi, who is a studio artist and an assistant professor of art at Wooster.

Nakhova’s exhibition, which spans a decade following her arrival in the United States, features objects drawn from installations in New York, Sweeden, Austria, and Moscow along with a new painting completed in Pittsburgh. “Irina examines the transient nature of home against the permanence of maternal ties,” says Mangubi. “Threads of feminist gaze permeate the artist’s musings on the ‘maternal role in the life of an individual and the fate of the nation.’”

Included in Nakhova’s exhibit are “Annunciation,” a painting which features silhouette-like angel shapes, and “Ironing Boards,” depicting the anonymity of female subjects through seven boards stretched with thermal inkjet-printed photographs on graphic silk. Mangubi will facilitate a Conversation in the Gallery about Nakhova’s work on Thursday, Sept, 18 from noon to 1 p.m.

The next exhibition, scheduled for Oct. 17-Dec. 5, provides area artists with an opportunity to showcase their work in a regional juried exhibition, titled “convergence.” Co-organized by the Wayne Center for the Arts and The College of Wooster Art Museum, this juried exhibition is open to artists residing within a 40-mile radius of Wooster who are over the age of 18 and are not enrolled in a degree-granting program. Dennis Harrington, director of the Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, will serve as juror for this exhibition. The submission deadline for entries is Aug. 25 and entry forms are available at the Wayne Center for the Arts, The College of Wooster Art Museum, and in downloadable form at www.wooster.edu/artmuseum.
The College of Wooster Art Museum presents temporary, rotating exhibitions from September to May each year in the Ebert Art Center. The museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. except during College breaks. All receptions, lectures, and exhibitions are free and open to the public. Group tours are also available. The 2003-2004 exhibition season is supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council through state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

For more information, call 330-263-2495 or visit www.wooster.edu/artmuseum.