Rozsa Gallery Archives | Visual and Performing Arts News

Artist Lisa Gordillo Receives ND Human Rights Festival Award

Published March 14, 2019

Assistant Professor Lisa Gordillo, Visual and Performing Arts, received an award for “Best Three-Dimensional Work” for her work of art, “Las Cordinadas/The Coordinates,” as part of the 2019 North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival. The work of art, which was first developed on Michigan Tech’s campus as part of Gordillo’s 2017 Rozsa Gallery exhibit, ChickenBus, traveled through North Dakota during the human rights festival this spring.

Gordillo’s sculpture commemorates 26 of the 440 Mayan villages that were destroyed during Guatemala’s 30-year genocide, which was partially funded by the United States. Gordillo worked with her collaborator and partner Hugo Gordillo to develop the piece, which is composed of plaster casts of human hands, and a wall text that lists the villages destroyed and the actions taken to destroy them. The piece will be on display through March in Grand Forks, ND at the High Plains Fair Housing Center.

Rozsa Concourse Gallery 2018-2019 Artists

Published October 17, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts Concourse Gallery is featuring two artists this year: jd slack and Michael Letts.

jd slack: what makes a wall

jd slack is a pastel artist and professor of communication and cultural studies. Her paintings integrate brilliant color, provocative imagery, and thoughtful engagement with physical and imaginative worlds. She lives and works in the Traprock Valley on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, but travels the world to gather images and inspiration.

The obvious wall, the build-a-wall-and-make-Mexico-pay-for-it wall, makes an appearance here, as it must. But that wall, like all walls, makes its appearance where there were once no walls. Real people build walls: With our imaginations: with hate, fear, and the very belief in separateness. With what we do or don’t do … with teaching what to value or not. With real stuff: wires, rocks, pebbles, metal, and earth.— JD Slack

Michael Letts: Ancient Coast Series

Michael Letts lives and works in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as a practicing artist and Professor of Art Education at Northern Michigan University. He holds an MFA in Painting from The Ohio State University. His paintings have been shown in numerous regional, national, and international exhibitions.

This series depicts spaces, and contemplates the energy that is trapped in the boundaries of physicality … Rocks hold ancient strength … water too is a force, and a source, it separates, dissolves, erodes, and unites at the same time. It contemplates the eternal and ephemeral … solid and spirit, all together, in the world, existing as a whole. — Michael Letts

For more information on all our gallery events, visit our events calendar.

“Never Empty” Gallery Exhibit Opens Friday

Published October 9, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts and the Rozsa Center are excited to announce the fall gallery exhibition, “Never Empty,” featuring work by artists Dylan Miner (Ann Arbor) and Amanda Breitbach (Nacodoches, Texas).

The exhibit will run from Friday, Oct. 12 through Saturday, Nov. 10 in Michigan Tech’s A-Space Gallery, within the Rozsa Center. Gallery hours are M-F 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. A reception will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Artist Amanda Breitbach will give an artist talk at 6 p.m. that evening.

The exhibit, curated by Lisa Gordillo, curator and director of the Rozsa Galleries, features photographs by Breitbach and mixed media paintings by Miner. Both artists’ work investigates stories about local and national lands.

Our collaboration is dynamic and thought-provoking. The exhibit digs into the myths and the tensions present in our landscapes, and the peoples who have histories there. Both artists work to uncover, and to showcase, stories that may not be present at a first glance.—Lisa Gordillo

This exhibit is part of Gordillo’s effort to showcase minority voices within the gallery, and to pay special attention to First Nation artists. According to Gordillo, “It’s very important for all of us, but especially for Michigan Tech, as our campus sits on Ojibwe lands. I hope this exhibit inspires thoughtful conversations about landscape, land-use and the many heritages of our nation.”

Amanda Breitbach’s photographs and Dylan Miner’s cyanotype-process paintings recompose the narratives we often speak when talking about “the land,” “expansion,” and “environments.” Together, the two artists dig into the myths and tensions that exist within the landscape and peoples who have histories there.

Breitbach is a photographer whose work focuses on the complex relationships between people and land. She grew up on a family ranch in Montana; she offers portraits of a farm in decline, centered within the expansive high plains. Dylan Miner is a Wiisaakodewinini (Métis) artist, activist, and scholar. His work reimagines the landscape as he layers pigments, minerals, and smoke on top of Upper Peninsula images.

The artists’ visit is supported in part by the Michigan Tech Visiting Women and Minority Lecture Series, which is funded by a grant to the Office of Institutional Equity from the State of Michigan’s King-Chavez-Parks Initiative. Both artists will spend time with the community during their visit.

For more details, contact Lisa Gordillo 7-3096.

Gordillo Presents Exhibit “Prohibido Orinar Aqui” in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Published June 28, 2017

By

Announcements

Lisa Gordillo, Assistant Professor, Visual and Performing Arts, presents a new collection of sculpture and installation at the Centro Cultural Efrain Recinos in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, July 15-Aug. 1. The exhibit, titled “Prohibido Orinar Aqui,” was developed from Gordillo’s spring exhibit, “ChickenBus,” in the Rozsa Gallery. The works of art in the exhibit are inspired by US-Guatemalan relations.

Gordillo is also sculptor-in-residence at Tierra Adentro, the International Poetry Festival of Aguacatan, Guatemala. This year’s festival is dedicated to immigrants and displaced people. Gordillo will create an art installation, titled “Caminante” (Someone Walking) along the Aguacatan river and a migrating book as part of the festival.

Antigua - Guatemala - January 24, 2013: Traditional Guatemalan local "Chicken Bus" station in Antigua, Guatemala. It is located behind the busy street market in Antigua. — Antigua – Guatemala – January 24, 2013: Traditional Guatemalan local “Chicken Bus” station in Antigua, Guatemala. It is located behind the busy street market in Antigua.

Rozsa Gallery B Presents “Come In We’re Open”

Published February 23, 2017

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents the Rozsa gallery b show “Come In We’re Open,” an open house exhibition of student sculptors’ works in progress, as a part of the “Project Learning Lab” alternative classroom project. “Project Learning Lab,” a cutting-edge Visual Arts experiment that takes place within the Rozsa gallery. Students in 3D Design and Sculpture will use the Rozsa Gallery as an active and alternative classroom, transforming the space into a real-time work of art during the semester. Student work will be shown twice each semester. A mid-semester showcase will open the gallery for our community to see work in-progress; the end of semester exhibition will welcome community into a fully transformed space. As part of Project Learning Lab, our Visual Arts Faculty are working alongside our students as Resident Art Fellows.

“Come In We’re Open” will run from Monday (Feb. 27) to Saturday, March 4. The gallery will host a public reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2. The reception is free and open to the public.

Rozsa gallery b is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. Visitors may walk through at any time.

Rozsa Gallery A Space Presents “ChickenBus: A U.S. — Guatemalan Experience”

Published February 22, 2017

By Heather Powers

Announcements

What is a ChickenBus? A chicken bus is a bright, loud, jostling work of public transportation in Guatemala.

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts present the Rozsa Gallery A Space show, “ChickenBus,” featuring work by VPA faculty member Lisa Gordillo.

“ChickenBus” is the first U.S. exhibit of works inspired by Gordillo’s long-term collaboration with Guatemalan artists and writers. The exhibit will run from Saturday (Feb. 25) to Friday, March 24 and will travel to Guatemala this summer

There will be an opening reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 25), including a conversation with Gordillo at 6 p.m.

There will also be a second event, a “Marimba Concert and Poetry Night,” developed in collaboration with Michigan Tech music students and conducted by Mike Christiansen (VPA), Michigan Tech’s Director of Bands, at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 24 in the Rozsa lobby.

This is a special concert and poetry reading that will combine marimba music with readings by Gordillo’s husband, Guatemalan writer Hugo Gordillo, whose collections, “Trench(era)” and “Para Escapar de la Muerte,” were key inspirations for “ChickenBus.”

Rozsa Gallery B Presents “Come In We’re Open”

Published October 27, 2016

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents the first Rozsa Gallery B show of the 2016-17 Season: “Come In We’re Open,” an open house exhibition of the work of student scuptors’ work in progress, as a part of the “Project Learning Lab” alternative classroom project.

The show opens on Tuesday (Nov. 1) and runs until Saturday, Nov. 5. There will be two public receptions from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3 and Friday, Nov. 4. These receptions are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

First A-Space Gallery show of the 2016-17 Season September 30th

Published September 23, 2016

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents the first Rozsa A-Space Gallery show of the 2016-17 Season: Flats and Rounds, an exhibition of the work of two artists, Kathleen McCloud and Sarah Hewitt.

Flats and Rounds opens with a public reception on Friday, September 30, from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM, and will continue through November 18. The reception is free and open to the public, and gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM and Saturday from 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM.

Hewitt will also create a weaving installation on-site, in the Rozsa Lobby, from October 20 – 26th. A public lecture by Hewitt to discuss her work further will be held in the Rozsa on the evening of Tuesday, October 25.

This exhibition brings together many genres of art; installation, painting, weaving, printmaking, papermaking and sculpture. Combinations, permutations and someplace in between both two-dimensional (flat) and three-dimensional (round) works of art challenge the labels the viewer places on artists and artworks. VPA Assistant Professor and A-Space gallery manager Lisa Gordillo elaborates: “Hewitt and McCloud explore single and multi-dimensional space, gender mythology, and cultural storytelling in this exhibit.”

Kathleen McCloud, a visual artist currently living in Santa Fe New Mexico, works in painting, printmaking, sculpture and installation mediums. McCloud writes, “My paintings and print-based paper constructions expand upon history and the mythologizing that insinuates into the cultural story over time. I reconfigure the characters into a variety of relationships and environments to create globalized narratives that address current events and the replay of history.

The melting pot of characters is reflected in the diverse materials used to make them, which include mixed papers, fabric, plastic and wax. As in fairy tales and myths, these paper characters appear as enchanters- both ephemeral and powerful transformers. Their territory is the borderlands between the known and the unknown, raising questions about home and what it means to be connected a this time.”

Sarah Hewitt is an artist who currently lives in New York but calls northern New Mexico and mid-coast Maine home. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country. Upcoming exhibitions include Kindred Beasts at the Everson Museum, and Flats and Rounds. Hewitt has received awards and residencies from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center, Purchase College/SUNY, Quimby Colony and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Hewitt describes her work this way:

She vows
To make plastic art
Redefine plastic art
To make you love plastic art
To challenge and bewitch you with what you think is formal or plastic
To make you bow to her craft
Redefine craft
To weave
To weave your mind
To weave your mind into confusion
To drag you into the sacred without your consent

For more information please contact Lisa Gordillo, Assistant Professor, Visual and Performing Arts, 906-487- 3096, lijohnso@mtu.edu.

Artist Lali Khalid on “Being Between”

Published September 9, 2016

By Heather Powers

“Being Between,” artist Lali Khalid’s photographs of identity, displacement and home, are on display in Rozsa Gallery, A-Space, through Thursday, Sept. 22.

The gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.

A special lecture by the artist is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16 in M&M U115. The gallery reception follows from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Rozsa Gallery (lower level).

Khalid, a Pakistani-American artist, holds degrees from The National College of Fine Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, and The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. “Being Between” is the first exhibit of the Rozsa Galleries new “Independent Artist Series.”

For additional information, contact Lisa Gordillo.

Tag: Rozsa Gallery

jd slack: what makes a wall

Michael Letts: Ancient Coast Series