The College of Wooster Art Museum Presents 'War Work'

Horrors of war exposed Jan. 12 through Feb. 28 in Ebert Art Center

WOOSTER, Ohio - Striking images from conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nicaragua, and elsewhere will be on display when The College of Wooster Art Museum presents "War Work: Artists Respond to Iraq and Other Wars," Jan. 12 through Feb. 28, 2010, in the Sussel Gallery. The College of Wooster Art Museum is located in the Ebert Art Center (1220 Beall Ave.).

Organized by the Carleton College Art Gallery in Northfield, Minn., "War Work" is "an invitation to reflect on Operation Iraqi Freedom and on the lingering impacts of this and other armed conflicts around the world," says Laurel Bradley, director of exhibitions at Carleton College Art Gallery, who will give a curator's talk during the opening reception, which will be held Thursday, Jan. 14, from 6-8 p.m.

Artists Daniel Heyman, John Risseeuw, Ehren Tool, Megan Vossler, and the Combat Paper Project, an artists collective, address war and its effects through drawing, printmaking, papermaking, book arts, and ceramics. "(They) are observers, critics and commentators, advocates and therapeutic healers," says Bradley. "They join a distinguished historical pantheon of artists who, through provocative and beautiful work, force audiences to confront the realities of war, reflect on man's inhumanity to man, and help to heal the wounds of war."

Bradley adds that artists bridge the distance between our comfortable lives and a distant war. "Because of vast distances, media restrictions, and class differences between soldiers and art audiences, war remains an abstraction to most Americans," she says. "We have little or no access to the brutality, danger, tedium, and extremes of heat and cold that define life in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, (but) art can counteract the complacency caused by such distance...The artists in 'War Work' invite viewers to constructively engage with the Iraq War; to truly see the brutal consequences of this and other armed conflicts, to reflect, and to seek healing and peace."

Risseeuw and Heyman, for example, address the tragedy of landmines left behind in war zones with "cast paper pieces that integrate fibrous plants from mine locations and clothing from landmine victims...(designed) to raise awareness and provide funds for organizations that assist victims." Heyman plays the dual role of artist and witness in recording the visual likenesses and verbal accounts of former prisoners at Abu Graib. Drawings, prints, and artist books depict Iraqis as they testify to a human rights lawyer.

In addition to "War Work," a related exhibition selected from The College of Wooster Art Museum's Permanent Collection titled, "War Images," will be on display in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery. Included in this exhibition are five prints by Kathe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945), 12 original 1940s-era political cartoons by Ohio artist "Web" Brown that appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal, reproductions of WWII drawings by Muirhead Bone, and American and British WWII posters.

The College of Wooster Art 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. All receptions, lectures, exhibitions, and performances are free and open to the public, and group and class tours are available. The final exhibition of the year will showcase a collection of Andy Warhol photos (March 23-May 10) and a group exhibition by seniors who will present their Independent Study projects (April 23-May 10). For more information, call 330-263-2388 or visit www.wooster.edu/artmuseum.