The Wexner Center for the Arts officially kicked off its “Six Solos” exhibition Tuesday. The exhibit displays the work of six international artists and their signature media.
“One of our chief objectives is to present the most radical, the most inventive and the most awe of-the-moment contemporary art in the world to the campus community,” said Christopher Bedford, chief curator of exhibitions.
The individual exhibitions went on display Tuesday at the Wexner Center and will stay until Feb. 13. Five installations will be featured inside the Wexner, as well as one outside the building.
Artists were given their own separate spaces for their exhibits.
Tim Fulton, media coordinator for the Wexner Center, said the installations are not connected by a common theme in any way.
The artists cover a broad range of media in their pieces, along with a wide range of material, such as diode lights, stainless steel and glass.
Artist Erwin Redl’s work, “Fetch,” features 100 LED sticks. “Fetch” is featured outside the Wexner Center, where students and faculty will be able to view the installation on their walks through the building’s “grid.”
“The light display is supposed to serve as a beacon to summon the city of Columbus and the student body to the Wexner Center,” Bedford said.
If anyone has eaten at the Wexner’s new cafe, Taste of Belgium, then they’ve seen Megan Geckler’s “Spread the ashes of the colors,” in which bright, multi-colored flagging tape strips are secured to the walls and hanging from the ceiling.
Boston-based artist Tobias Putrih, in collaboration with MOS (an architecture group led by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample), created a sculpture out of steel and aluminum to act as a wedge between film and its viewers. Visitors to “Majestic” can consume the hybrid piece in three ways: as a sculpture, video or both.
Mexican-American artist Gustavo Gudoy filled an entire trapezoid-shaped room with a plywood structure integrated with fluorescent light bulbs. Godoy will allow visitors to climb onto and participate in his all-white piece, “Fast-formal Object: Flayed White,” by appointment.
“We don’t want it to be a free-for-all, although in a certain way I think that’s the artist’s dream and intention, but we do need to police the interactivity just a little bit more to make it safe for the public,” Bedford said.
For British painter Katy Moran, this will be the first time her work is presented individually in an American museum.
Sculptor Joel Morrison uses an inflated latex glove to depict scale against a massive stainless steel rat trap.
“Six Solos” is part of the Wexner Center’s 21st anniversary celebration.
