October 24, 2013–August 1, 2014 (extended)
Christian Petersen Art Museum
Iowa State University
1017 Morrill Hall
Ames, IA 50011
Hours: Monday–Friday 11am–4pm
T +1 515 294 3342
The exhibition Illuminating Perception: Explorations of Light and Shadow by Mac Adams at the Christian Petersen Art Museum on the Iowa State University campus has been extended to August 1.
The sculptures by Mac Adams play elaborate games with shadow and light. Through his sculpture he explores the idea of shadows as units or cells within a larger sculpture. This exhibition combines the shadow sculpture of Mac Adams with additional explorations of light through photography. His art challenges our visual literacy as the presence of light among seemingly unrelated objects generates another layer to the visual message.
“Adams’s shadow pieces not only address the shadow as itself, they force it to speak for itself, to justify itself, even to begin a dialogue with the object that casts it.”
–Emily Morgan, art historian
Mac Adams was born in 1943 in Brynmawr South Wales, Great Britain. He attended Cardiff College of Art followed by Rutgers University, where he received his MFA. He is now a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, New York. He has had over 60 solo exhibitions internationally. His art is in the collections of numerous institutions including Musee National d’art Modern; Center Pompidou, Paris; Microsoft Corporation; Harvard University; The Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles; and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has completed over 14 public art commissions in the U.S. and Europe, the most notable of these is the Korean War Memorial, 1991 located in Battery Park, New York City, which was the first major Memorial dedicated to the Korean War in the United States.
His sculpture The Moth is in the permanent Art on Campus Collection at Iowa State University, with its site-specific installation outside the Department of Computer Engineering. The Moth is an organic form that interacts with the natural surroundings. As the focal point of the sculpture, the image of the moth is created through the negative forms of three marble slabs. The viewer has to find the optimum spatial position for the shape of a moth trapped in the square to visually form.
Artist’s statement:
‟Did you know a roll of paper, a coffee cup, a container of glass-plus and a cup with a tea bag when lit from above makes an almost perfect shadow of Mickey Mouse? Did you know a slice of cheese, a bunch of grapes, two apples, a banana, and a knife, when lit from the side, makes a shadow that resembles the murder of Jean Marat?
Observing these and other minor phenomena has made me aware of how the most mundane groupings of object can reveal intimate musings in the shadows they project, revealing more about the person who is observing them than the objects themselves. These temporal, Rorschach-like images called shadows invite both speculation and meditation, evoking a presence both fearful and humorous.”
–Mac Adams
The art in the exhibition is on loan courtesy of the artist and the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York. The exhibition is curated and organized by University Museums with support from the ISU College of Engineering, Jim and Kathy Melsa, Al and Ann Jennings, Dirk and Cindy Scholten, the ISU College of Design, and the University Museums Membership.
Mac Adams is represented by Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York City and GB Agency in Paris. His web site is macadamsstudio.com.
