Meditative Surfaces
On November 15 at 6:30pm, the artists of Meditative Surfaces will visit FWMoA for a one night only ArtScene discussion of this powerful and contemplative body of work. Free – FWMoA Members / $5 – Non-Members.
This collection of work by Chicago-based artists focuses on surface patterns that combine to present a united statement of introspection. Featuring the work of Deanna Krueger, Maggie Meiners, and Charles Gniech, this show makes a statement on the chaos of modern life and the quest for peace demonstrated by the meditative surfaces of each work.
Charles Gniech: Influenced for more then twenty years by the megalithic stone circles of Great Britain, this latest body of work explores the meditative qualities of the fluid-like surface patterns found on many of the monuments. Like that of Agnes Martin and Mark Rothko, the imagery conveys the serene qualities of meditation and inner peace.
Gniech is a Professor of Art and the Exhibition Curator for Gallery 180 of The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago. He also acts as Collections Curator for the Institute’s Chicago Corporate Art Collection. Gniech holds a Master of Fine Art degree with an emphasis in painting and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in illustration both from Northern Illinois University. While teaching, consulting and freelancing, Gniech continues to paint and exhibits at the national level. His work has been included into various gallery and museum exhibitions.
Maggie Meiners: Though the purposeful use of fuzzy images seems to defy logic, the static of these images is meant to transfix and transport the viewer to a mind space where memories run wild. Upon arrival, colors are meant to take over, directing traffic as they issue their profound and proven impact on one’s emotions. I named the series, selections from which are featured in Meditative Surfaces, Childhood Contemplations after stepping into the role of the viewer myself and finding that the spectrum of colors recalls memories of my childhood. A colorful one indeed.
Award winning fine art photographer Meiners explores the beauty, complications, emotions, and surprises of every day life.
Deanna Krueger: I work abstractly at the juncture where sculpture and painting intersect. The resulting pieces are hybrids. Striving for the elusive and the intangible, my work explores the boundaries between reality and that which is not yet known. It evokes a multitude of associations: aquatic life forms, otherworldly geological formations, surreal vegetation, scientific images of the miniscule, visions of the cosmos. I am interested in humanity’s collective search for meaning in the absurdity that is this life, and in the pleasure to be found in the various manifestations of that search.