The Art Ed Welcome Event was held on Saturday September 14th @Intuit Gallery. This net- working event for SAIC MAAE candidates featured delicious food from Wishbone to satisfy all taste buds. The eclectic atmosphere was casual, friendly and filled with the fine art of Eddie Harris. The purpose of this networking event was effortlessly achieved and it provided first year grad students an opportunity to learn know more about the wonderful folks in our department and our classmates.
It Takes a Hard Heart: The Life Work of Eddie Harris
September 13 - December 28, 2013
Free opening reception: September 13, 5-8pm
Curated by Laura Bickford
Eddie Harris in his garden. Photo by Cheri Eisenberg
After living and working in and around Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham
neighborhood for nearly fifty years, the powerful and politically-tuned
work of the artist Eddie Harris will be exhibited to the public for the
first time at Intuit. This exhibition will explore both the breadth and
depth of Harris’ work, in media and subject matter, touching on themes
including Black power, portrayals of beauty and strength, the family,
and the aesthetics of activism in the form of his bas-relief sculptures,
paintings and drawings, and carved and painted objects.
Largely self-taught, Harris draws from memories of picking cotton
during a childhood in Arkansas to his experience with the years of rage
and the Black Panthers in Chicago, using found and salvaged materials to
tell his personal narrative of the very public struggle for Black
empowerment. Formally strong, with a painstaking attention to
craftsmanship and gesture, his entire artistic practice shows a long
dedication to both the aesthetic and cultural concerns of his life
across several decades and presents a private and public address of
Black power and heart.
Drawing
from an uncatalogued body of work that numbers in the hundreds of
pieces, this exhibition, with its selection of thirty-two works,
presents a glimpse into the life and work of Harris. Speaking about his
ability to carve notoriously-unwieldy pine, Harris has said, “The wood’s
got to have a hard heart. You can tell if it does, and if that pine has
a hard heart, using the tools I made, you can carve it.” Following the
wisdom of Harris, the exhibition highlights not only the fragility and
strength, but also the empathy, anger, and inventiveness displayed by
Harris to tirelessly transform his life experiences into monumental
works of art.
Established in 1991, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Intuit) is the only nonprofit organization in the United States that is dedicated solely to presenting self-taught and outsider art — with world class exhibitions; resources for scholars and students; a Permanent Collection with holdings of more than 1,100 works of art; the Henry Darger Room Collection; the Robert A. Roth Study Center, a non-circulating collection with a primary focus in the fields of outsider and contemporary self-taught art; and educational programming for people of all interest levels and backgrounds.
Article courtesy of Intuit Gallery and photographs by Tony Smith.
Established in 1991, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Intuit) is the only nonprofit organization in the United States that is dedicated solely to presenting self-taught and outsider art — with world class exhibitions; resources for scholars and students; a Permanent Collection with holdings of more than 1,100 works of art; the Henry Darger Room Collection; the Robert A. Roth Study Center, a non-circulating collection with a primary focus in the fields of outsider and contemporary self-taught art; and educational programming for people of all interest levels and backgrounds.
Article courtesy of Intuit Gallery and photographs by Tony Smith.
