Arts Storytelling, creativity and community on display at Stewart Gallery

By Claire Giannosa giannosa@grinnell.edu

An exhibit of diverse, original work from six Grinnell College studio art majors is on display at the Grinnell Area Arts Center’s Stewart Gallery. The exhibit, titled “Artist Salon,” is open through March 11.

The showcase opened last Friday, Feb. 10, 5-7 p.m., with a reception open to all members of the Grinnell community. Attendees had the opportunity to converse with the artists before the artist talk at 6 p.m., where the artists described their process and inspiration.

“I think art is something that is innately human that people should do and that should be valued. And so, I do it and I try to value it,” said Henry

Loomis `26, one of the featured artists.

“I always enjoy getting people to see my work. It doesn’t happen that often, so it’s sort of nice to have this outlet.”

Monica St. Angelo, the operations manager for the Grinnell Area Arts Council, said she hoped the event would bring the College and broader Grinnell community together. “Part of the challenge of [the Grinnell Arts Center] is getting people involved … sometimes it’s hard to attract college students to come,” she said.

By having the artists at the reception and the artist talk, St. Angelo hopes it was a “chance to connect and have fun.” St. Angelo brainstormed the idea for the “Artist Salon” with her 2022 summer intern, Georgia Carbone `24, and together the two created an application open to studio art majors.

The “Artist Salon” showcases 28 pieces from 6 students. Although the show is not unified under a specific theme, the artists have thematic consistencies in their work.

Loomis’ two pieces, “Visions of Jonah” and “Firefly Alchemist,” are both pieces of digital art drawn in the app Procreate for iPad. “Visions of Jonah” was inspired by Loomis’ reading of “Moby Dick,” while "Firefly Alchemist" was inspired by Ancient Greece and Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.”

Describing “Visions of Jonah,” Loomis said, “I read ‘Moby Dick’ last semester. I loved it. I was really taken by the homosexuality of the novel.

I think it’s really interesting. So, it depicts two men within Moby Dick surrounded by spermaceti, which is a sort of amber liquid, and they’re sort of in an amorous embrace.”

In contrast, “Firefly Alchemist'' is “based off of this idea that Ovid wrote about in the ‘Metamorphoses’: bees are born from dead cows, flies are born from dead horses and crabs are born from dead horses who die on the beach,” Loomis said. “So, it’s sort of playing with this idea of an alchemist who figures out how to turn the viscera of animals into fireflies.”

Jeremy Chen

By Oliver Wolfe wolfeoli@grinnell.edu

If you stroll into the Grinnell College Museum of Art any day between now and April 8, you will be greeted by a diverse collection of things. Among these — a suitcase with a round hole cut through the middle, a cement block suspended on a spring hanging from the ceiling, a pile of clocks. There are some everyday items displayed in a decidedly not everyday way and some unorthodox materials that are intricately organized in the space, uniquely lighted and intentionally positioned to stimulate deep thoughts and feelings about our interaction with the world around us.

The aptly named “Devices, Tools, Objects, and Props” is the latest exhibit of work by Grinnell College’s Chair of American studies and assistant professor of studio art, Jeremy Chen.

Chen said that he has been interested in art for as long as he can remember, but he has a unique definition of the word “art.” “Everyone starts out interested in art,” Chen said. “We do stuff where we see what happens when we drag a stick though the mud or when we push our food around a plate.”

As Chen got a bit older, he became more interested in art in the more traditional sense of the word, and he used his art as a way to continue his exploration of the world around him. “There was a time where I liked drawing, painting and building stuff with materials I could find outside or at home,” Chen said.

In high school, Chen started making stop-motion animation. Chen cited this interest in film as an important step in his development as an artist. “I’d always liked art classes, but I was just really interested in what, at that time, was this new thing called ‘video.’”

Hoping to continue his work with video, Chen began his studies at the University of Iowa. However, it was hard for underclassmen to get a spot in film classes, which forced a change of plans for Chen. “I started taking art classes just to get access to video,” Chen said with a chuckle.

This was the moment Chen realized that he had a serious passion for art. “[The things that] people are doing with art is making me think in such different ways,” Chen remembered thinking. Chen ultimately finished his undergraduate degree with a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking and a sculpture minor.

Nowadays, Chen has kept the approach he learned during his education in the Intermedia Program at Iowa — his art extends beyond any single form or medium. “I’m interested in lots of media because each media has its own language. What is the right media for what my question is?”

For “Devices, Tools, Objects, and Props,” Chen opted for a series of three-dimensional sculptural artworks to answer his recent query.

“I’m wondering about how humans need objects and things, devices, tools, technologies, and how those things need us. I’m curious about that relationship.”

When it comes to creating art, Chen does not have a step-by-step process. “At my studio, I just start to collect things that resonate with something I’m thinking about, and some things do sit around for a long time.”

Chen highlighted the importance of Grinnell’s liberal arts environment for creating. “I think the beauty of where we are […] is that it’s encouraging us to be our whole selves,” he said. “You can sing acapella, play ultimate frisbee, you can take a music lesson, you can crank out some linear algebra.”

Chen went on to say that his art can be inspired by anything, including his work in the American studies

While Loomis described the pieces as “stylistically different,” he said, “I think there’s sort of a thematic through-line of this connection to literature that I’m interested in and art.” Emma Hastie `23 created two pieces for the show using Prismacolor markers on paper.

“I pull a lot of inspiration from dreams … Like a stream of consciousness flow … So, if I’m listening to music and I see images come to my mind, that’s what I would say is my creative process. It’s very fluid in that sense,” Hastie said.

Her pieces, “Meat Factory” and “Juice Box,” are very intense in color and line work. “[‘Meat Factory’] is literally this entire narrative that’s very systematic. I mean, you can kind of tell by the name of it,” Hastie said.

Hastie described the colors of her pieces as vibrant warm and cool tones, creating an “interesting juxtaposition between that systematic nature and the fluid nature when it comes to the technical creation process and the content.” She likes to describe her process as “organized chaos.”

Both artists emphasized the important role art has played in their lives.

“I have this feeling when I don’t create that I’m about to be consumed by a large cavernous void within me. So, it’s sort of this outlet for me to spread the void,” Loomis said. “I just enjoy the act of observation. I like the world, and looking at it and being in it. I wanted it to always be an integral part of my life. Even if I don’t make a career out of it, it’s always going to be there,” Hastie said.

Students and organizers alike were hopeful that the exhibit would create stronger ties between the campus and town communities.

Hastie hopes “townspeople will come and see [the artwork] and then start dialogues. It’s weird because I’m in the Grinnell College bubble but then there is the Grinnell bubble … I think this is a great way to intermingle those two bubbles.”

The “Artist Salon” is open at the Stewart Gallery in the Grinnell Area Arts Center through March 11, and it can be visited during the gallery’s open hours Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon.

Check out more events from the Grinnell Arts Center by visiting their website: www.grinnellarts.org department. “These ideas don’t come out of a separation of life or a vacuum. They relate to personal things, intellectual ideas, current events or history.” Chen encourages anyone to explore his exhibition. “I would love it if people would just come in and experience the objects in the space. And hopefully, if they spend a little time, it will evoke something with them.” Chen also reflected on the meditative process that pondering art can give, saying, “I hope this slows us all down a bit.”

“Devices, Tools, Objects, and Props” opened on Friday, Jan. 27 at the Grinnell College Museum of Art, where it will remain through April 8.

Additional programming related to the exhibition includes a 20-minute conversation with Jeremy Chen on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 11 a.m.; “Useless

Work: A Short Performance” on Friday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m.; “Human and Thing Entanglements: A Short Performance” on Friday, March 3 at 7 p.m.; and a concluding performance by the MIYUMI Project on Saturday, April 8 at 7 p.m.