James Hearst in Prose
November 7 – December 29
Public discussion with UNI curatorial students: Thursday, November 7 at 4:00 p.m. with an opening reception to follow from 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Though James Hearst was known primarily as a poet, during his long literary career he also wrote essays, journalism, fiction and a memoir. This exhibit explores many lesser-known facets of James Hearst’s writing and offers an introduction to the work of one of Cedar Falls’ literary greats. This exhibit was prepared in conjunction with graduate English students in the UNI Department of Languages & Literature’s.
From Advertising to Art: 19th Century Trade Cards and the Unfettered American Imagination
November 19, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Opening reception: Friday, November 22 from 5:00–6:30 p.m.
Gallery talk with Dr. Lenore Metrick-Chen: Friday, November 22 at 6:00 p.m.
The 270 original American advertising cards in this exhibition explore 19th century social as well as visual culture. The cards reflect a time of cultural change and cultural anxiety as America shifted from an agrarian to an industrial economy and into an emerging world power. In the course of advertising all sorts of new commodities, the card artists created wildly inventive new visual languages of montage and proto-surrealism in which human forms merged with animals, vegetables, machines and fruit. The result could be demonizing and dehumanizing or it could convey a carnivalesque sense of magic, shifting visual culture from the Victorian moralizing realistic style towards Modernism.
From Advertising to Art was originally curated by Dr. Lenore Metrick-Chen, an art and cultural historian, for display at Drake University. Metrick-Chen’s ongoing study of the impact of Chinese in Western art recently culminated in her publication, Collecting Objects/Excluding People: Chinese Subjects and American Visual Culture, 1830–1900.
Where Art Happens