Campus Connection

UWL gallery season opens with works of Laura Moriarty

Vibrant sculptural paintings and works on paper will fill the University Art Gallery at UW-La Crosse. The season opens with works by Kansas artist Laura Moriarty. [caption id="attachment_49550" align="alignright" width="167"] Large Scroll: Crius, 2017, encaustic monotype on kitakata paper, approx. 70 x 39[/caption] “Laura Moriarty: Pay Dirt Art Exhibition” opens with a reception from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, in the University Art Gallery, located on the first floor of the Center for the Arts, 333 N. 16th St. Moriarty will give a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m. The exhibition runs through Friday, Sept. 23. Moriarty says she creates process-driven work “whose forms, colors, textures and patterns result from the same processes that shape and reshape the earth: heating and cooling, erosion, subduction, friction, enfolding, weathering, slippage.” While in La Crosse, Moriarty will hold a demonstration workshop from 9 a.m.-noon Friday, Sept. 8, in 119 Center for the Arts. The workshop is for students in painting, with a concurrent demonstration that is open to the public. Regular gallery hours are: noon-8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; noon-5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; by appointment; and during events in nearby Toland Theatre. For more information, contact the UWL Department of Art at 608.785.8230 or visit www.uwlax.edu/art [caption id="attachment_49551" align="aligncenter" width="685"] Cape, 2017, encaustic, black sand, powder charcoal, metallic
pigment, 7 x 19 x 17[/caption] Artist's statement: “Taking poetic license with geology, I compare processes of the studio with processes of the earth. Layers of color form the strata of a methodology in which the immediacy of the hand can translate a sense of deep time. Working and reworking molten, highly pigmented beeswax, I build each object through a slow, simple yet strenuous physical engagement, which often becomes a metaphor for the ephemerality of live and civilization. “I will present a body of sculptural paintings and works on paper that were created following a residency at the Baer Art Center in North Iceland last summer. The works were inspired by both the dramatic landforms that I observed there, as well as the culture that exists around them.” If you go: What: “Laura Moriarty: Pay Dirt,” sculptural paintings and works on paper explore processes that shape and reshape the earth. When: Sept. 7-23; opening reception 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7 Where: University Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, 333 N. 16th St. Admission: Free