Mark Dion: Treasure Hunting in Athens and at Ohio University

ATHENS, OH. August 25, 2009. Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University is excited to welcome internationally-known artist Mark Dion, who will shine his spotlight on the collections of both Ohio University and Athens community members this fall. Kennedy Museum will collaborate with the Ohio University School of Art in Dion’s two gallery exhibitions. Kennedy Museum of Art will present Collections Collected: The University Collects and Athens Collects Miniatures from September 24 to November 29, 2009. Mark Dion: Collected Editions 1992-2009 will show limited edition prints and multiples created by Dion between the years 1992 and 2009 in the University’s Trisolini Gallery from September 18 to November 14, 2009. Dion, an installation artist, examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. He has received numerous national awards and has had major exhibitions at the Miami Art Museum (2006), Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004), and Tate Gallery, London (1999) among others. 

A full plate of related activities will complement the two exhibitions both at Kennedy Museum and the OU School of Art. The public is invited to opening receptions with the artist at Trisolini Gallery in Baker University Center on Friday, September 18th from 7 – 9 and at Kennedy Museum of Art on Thursday, September 24th from 6 – 8 pm. Brown Bag Lunch sessions at noontime on October 7th and November 4th at Kennedy Museum of Art will allow the public to meet with local collectors whose miniatures collections will be a part of the exhibition. School children from the region will have a rare opportunity to see Dion in action during the installation of the exhibition when they visit Kennedy Museum for an arts program that is partially funded by Ohio Arts Council’s Arts Partnership grant. Custom postcards and a field guide to the university’s collections will be available for sale.

A Mark Dion gallery space is unique because of the way Dion brings together objects from a community and displays them in a manner that is visually stimulating and productive. In preparation for the exhibition at Kennedy Museum of Art, Dion made several visits to Athens to view the University’s departmental collections. The paleobotanical collection was one of the many places Dion visited in his April, 2009 trip to Athens. Royal Mapes, PhD., who overseas the university’s paleobotanical collection was enthusiastic about the visit, saying that Dion was interested in such things as mineral specimens, fossil specimens, and even an old miner’s hat. Mapes is looking forward to seeing what Dion does with the exhibition, saying he knows [Dion] will put the collected objects “in a format to excite people’s interest and make them ask questions.”

Dion visited many other departmental collections, including the Medical Museum, the anthropology and geology departments, the College of Engineering, and the athletics and aviations collections. When asked about his collection process and why he chooses to display some objects and not others, Dion replied that his goal is to find visually compelling objects that represent aspects of the University and its researchers. He likens his process to “treasure hunting,” explaining that he looks for things that are unique to a particular collection, but that also may represent the direction of that collection. Dion is especially enthusiastic about bringing people together from the community and revealing treasures from the collections he visited to a broader public.

Dion sees many treasures within a community and he sees his exhibitions as an “interesting way to reveal what’s out there” and share the privilege of exploration that he has had. He asserts that the exhibitions at Kennedy Museum of Art and Trisolini Gallery will be a broad cross section of objects, with two dimensional and three dimensional works collected from the University, Dion’s own works, as well as the miniature collections that are gathered from amateur collectors around the community.

Funding is provided by Arts for Ohio, Ohio University College of Fine Arts and the Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences. Additional funding was provided by the Ohio Arts Council with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

Kennedy Museum of Art hours are Tuesday through Friday, 12 pm to 5 pm, Thursday from 12 pm to 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm. The Museum is closed on Mondays and holidays. Parking and admission are free. Please call 750-593-1304 for more information.

Trisolini Gallery is located at Ohio University at 405 Baker University Center. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm and Thursdays from 10 am to 8 pm. For more information, please call 740-593-1814 or visit www.finearts.ohio.edu/art/galleries/tris.htm

Jazz Captured: Iconic Images of Herman Leonard to be displayed at Kennedy Museum of Art Kennedy Museum of Art presents exhibition in honor of Ohio University’s 2009 Commencement speaker

ATHENS, OH. May 27, 2009. In honor of photographer Herman Leonard, Ohio University’s 2009 Commencement speaker, Kennedy Museum of Art is excited to present the exhibition Jazz Captured: Iconic Images of Herman Leonard opening on June 2, 2009 and showing until July 26, 2009. These iconic images span a period lasting from the late 1940s to the 1990s with such notable names as Billie Holliday, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington featured.

Herman Leonard was born and raised in Allentown, PA in 1923. His interest in photography began in his childhood. Following his graduation from Ohio University in 1947 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he became an apprentice to master portrait photographer, Yousef Karsh in Ottawa, Canada from 1947-1948. In this capacity, he worked with such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Harry Truman, Martha Graham and Clark Gable.

During his career, he befriended some of the greatest jazz performers of the 20th century. In addition, he worked in the Paris fashion and advertising scenes as well as serving as the European photographer for Playboy Magazine. Upon rediscovering his jazz negatives in the mid-80s, he released his first book, The Eye of Jazz. A few years later, his jazz photographs were exhibited for the first time at the Special Photographers Company in London. His first U.S. show premiered in 1989 and toured nationally. Herman relocated to New Orleans in 1991 and became immersed in the jazz scene there. Meanwhile, his work was being exhibited around the world. Although some 8,000 photographs printed by Leonard were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, the negatives were saved and safely stored. Mr. Herman has since relocated to Studio City, California where he currently lives and works.

Herman’s three published works comprise a unique record of the jazz scene of the mid-20th century. He has received numerous honors for lifetime achievement – most recently, the 2008 Lucie Award. His work resides in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Smithsonian, Jazz at Lincoln Center, NY, and the George Eastman House, NY. His work is also in notable private collections worldwide. The Herman Leonard Jazz Archive was established in 2007.

Kennedy Museum of Art hours are Tuesday through Friday, 12 pm to 5 pm, Thursday from 12 pm to 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm. The Museum is closed on Mondays and holidays. Parking and admission are free. Please call 750-593-1304 for more information.