Thursday, March 7, 2019
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Free for Members with the Rockwell Ambassador enhancement. Advance reservations required by 5 p.m. on March 6.
Rockwell Ambassador members are invited to celebrate the Museum’s most recent installation, Antigravity, featuring sculptor and fiber artist Melissa Vandenberg.
Melissa Vandenberg finds inspiration in ordinary materials, using items like matches, quilts, stickers, popsicles and temporary tattoos to explore issues of power, national identity, mortality, patriotism and pride. Vandenberg will use hundreds of handkerchiefs to create a site-specific installation in The Rockwell’s rotunda entryway. Enjoy refreshments and visit one-on-one with this emerging artist.
Artist Biography
Erica Chambers Photography
Born and educated in Detroit, Melissa is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator living in Eastern Kentucky. Her studio practice explores the political landscape using national identity, folk art, ancestry, immigration, and the perception of a homeland as points of departure. She gravitates to everyday materials like matches, fabric, stickers, wood, and commonplace objects. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Iceland, and extensively throughout the United States. Melissa received a BFA in 1999 from Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and a MFA in 2005 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has been the recipient of numerous grants including a Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment Grant, the Al Smith Fellowship, Great Meadows Foundation Travel Grant, and was shortlisted for the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2016. Melissa is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University.
Melissa is represented by Maus Contemporary in Birmingham, AL.
111 Cedar St., Corning, NY 14830Free for Members with the Rockwell Ambassador enhancement. Advance reservations required by 5 p.m. on March 6.
Rockwell Ambassador members are invited to celebrate the Museum’s most recent installation, Antigravity, featuring sculptor and fiber artist Melissa Vandenberg.
Melissa Vandenberg finds inspiration in ordinary materials, using items like matches, quilts, stickers, popsicles and temporary tattoos to explore issues of power, national identity, mortality, patriotism and pride. Vandenberg will use hundreds of handkerchiefs to create a site-specific installation in The Rockwell’s rotunda entryway. Enjoy refreshments and visit one-on-one with this emerging artist.
Artist Biography
Erica Chambers Photography
Born and educated in Detroit, Melissa is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator living in Eastern Kentucky. Her studio practice explores the political landscape using national identity, folk art, ancestry, immigration, and the perception of a homeland as points of departure. She gravitates to everyday materials like matches, fabric, stickers, wood, and commonplace objects. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Iceland, and extensively throughout the United States. Melissa received a BFA in 1999 from Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and a MFA in 2005 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has been the recipient of numerous grants including a Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment Grant, the Al Smith Fellowship, Great Meadows Foundation Travel Grant, and was shortlisted for the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2016. Melissa is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University.
Melissa is represented by Maus Contemporary in Birmingham, AL.