Kel Mur, Gillian Drier, Victoria Maidhof

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Jennifer Bastian

Artist Kel Mur.

A gallery talk by two of the three new artists exhibiting through Feb. 27 at the Arts + Literature Laboratory will be broadcast live on Facebook at 5 pm on Jan. 28. Kel Mur's Reap includes weaving, video, performance and sound. Gillian Drier's Ideas, Ideals, Criticism, and Concerns incorporates quilting, beading, community and Black future. Mur and Drier are both participants in the Bridge Work Madison emerging artists program. The third artist exhibiting, Victoria Maidhof, incorporates photos and text into a multidimensional exploration of loneliness in her Don't Fall in Love and Chronicles of the Ordinary. Gallery open hours are noon-5 pm Thursdays-Saturdays.

media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory is proud to announce the opening of three new exhibitions: Kel Mur: Reap, Gillian Drier: Ideas, Ideals, Criticism, and Concerns, and Victoria Maidhof: Don’t Fall in Love and Chronicles of the Ordinary. The exhibitions by artists Kel Mur and Gillian Drier were created as part of the Bridge Work Madison emerging artists program.

The exhibitions will be on view from January 14 through February 27, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exhibitions in ALL’s new galleries will be available to view during limited hours from 12-5pm Thursday through Saturday or by appointment. Visitors inside the building will be required to wear masks and practice social distancing, and the number of visitors will be limited according to current public health guidelines. Exhibition admission is free. Please visit ALL’s website (artlitlab.org) or Facebook page (facebook.com/artlitlab) to learn about other upcoming programs and events.

An Artist talk featuring both Mur and Drier will be on ArtLitLab’s Facebook on January 28, 2021 at 5pm. Please check our website for details.

Kel Mur: Reap is a multimedia installation that focuses on the artist’s experience living with a large uterine fibroid in her abdomen. The causes of fibroids are not well understood but are thought to be related to a family history of fibroids, diet, excess estrogen collecting in the uterus, and, in some circles, the harboring of emotional or spiritual trauma. With surgery delayed by the pandemic, Mur worked outdoors near a cornfield and collected abandoned stalks, remnants of agriculture that helped her understand the mystery of her body’s fibroid development. Combining weaving, video, performance, and sound, Mur lays bare her own body’s landscape in relation to the natural cycles of the earth, sowing, and reaping.

Gillian Drier: Ideas, Ideals, Criticism, and Concerns is Drier’s personalized take on quilting through beads, community, and Black future. She invited Black community members to imagine a time when they or their descendants have risen above mere survival into a realm of rest and joy. “What does your day, your community impact, your success, your health, your family, your art, your life look like in a world where Black people can finally rest and the work is complete?” Drier created eight textile and embroidery works that illustrate these visions of Black power and Black future.

Sponsored by Dane Arts, Bridge Work Madison is the Dane County chapter of a multi-state project founded by Jason S. Yi and Leah Kolb of Plum Blossom Initiative (Milwaukee), and joined in 2017 by Arts + Literature Laboratory. Bridge Work provides critical opportunities for emerging artists to broaden the scope of their professional connections and experiences. Bridge Work endeavors to forge a more interconnected arts community throughout the Midwest by facilitating meaningful artistic exchanges and dialogs among artists and art-centered organizations and professionals.

The emerging artists invited to participate in this project express the energy, commitment, and willingness to benefit from the resources and guidance provided by each region’s facilitators. A culminating group exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists who are dedicated to their practices and poised to fully engage the contemporary art world. Kel Mur and Gillian Drier will represent Madison in this year’s group exhibition at the Allen Priebe Gallery at UW OshKosh from March 29 to April 14, 2021.

Victoria Maidhof: Don’t Fall in Love and Chronicles of the Ordinary. Don’t fall in love is a new series addressing the photographer’s experience of going through a painful breakup at the same time as a mental health crisis. She chose to use Polaroids “because they are scrappy, chaotic, messy, and unpredictable, much like [her] state of mind during this period of time.” Chronicles of the Ordinary is a long-term photography project by the artist, consisting of photos taken between 2003 and 2016. Maidhof photographed people living unorthodox lifestyles, her camera granting her permission into the lives of complete strangers, with whom she ended up fostering long-term friendships. She combines photos and text into a multidimensional exploration of loneliness and our universal yearning to make intimate connections with other human beings.