Jundt Art Museum 'Close In' Series Features Work from Marilyn Lysohir, Shani Marchant Starting May 30
SPOKANE, Wash. – The Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University continues its summer “Close In” series featuring the work of regional artists Marilyn Lysohir, from Moscow, Idaho, and Shani Marchant, Spokane. The exhibition, “Close In: Marilyn Lysohir and Shani Marchant: Between Two Worlds,” organized by Curator of Education Karen Kaiser, opens May 30 and continues through Sept. 12.
Marilyn Lysohir is an accomplished sculptor known for her monumental ceramic work and installations, which evolve from very personal points of inspiration.
In 1998, Lysohir unveiled “The Dark Size of Dazzle,” a two-ton, 24-foot-long, 9-foot-high ceramic battleship at the Boise Art Museum. This entire installation will be on display in the Jundt Galleries, including a life-size “bathroom” tableau. Lysohir’s work appears often in books published about ceramics in the last 20 years and her pieces are in museum collections throughout the United States. Lysohir has been an artist in residence at Archie Bray, the Kansas City Art Institute, and has served as a visiting artist and Professor at New York State College of Ceramics in Alfred, New York. She lectures and conducts workshops, and demonstrations throughout the United States. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Northern University and a Master of Fine Arts from Washington State University. Her work has been described as “overwhelming” not just physically but also in its simplicity.
Shani Marchant’s section of the exhibition, titled “Between Two Worlds,” is a collection of paintings that confront the space between the hearing and the deaf. Marchant, who has been deaf since birth, learned to read lips and to speak phonetically at Spokane’s Edna Davis School for the Deaf. By age 10, she was mainstreamed into school and the hearing world, where she began painting at an early age. To Marchant, painting is language. She often uses text in her work; sometimes writing whole paragraphs. She studied painting and printmaking at Fort Wright College in Spokane, and the Art Students League in New York, where she worked with Will Barnet. At the Maryland Institute of Art, Marchant was greatly influenced by Grace Hartigan, a widely respected abstract painter. Marchant has lived and painted on both coasts, and her work often reflects the clash of the urban and the rural. Marchant uses grids as representations of her interactions with urban living. For many years she painted life underwater, another silent world. Her great love of color is evident throughout her images.
An evening with the artists begins with a lecture at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 29 in the Jundt Auditorium, followed by public preview reception until 8 p.m.
The “Close In” series of exhibitions began in 2012 as a way to showcase the work of regional artists during the summer months and to attract summer visitors to the museum. The Jundt Galleries are open year-round and this series provides a venue for local artists who work in painting, drawing, sculpture, prints, and installations.
The museum’s exhibitions are free and open to the public from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Saturday; closed Sundays and University holidays. For more information, call the Jundt Art Museum at (509) 313-6843 or visit its website at www.gonzaga.edu/jundt. To schedule a docent-led tour, please call Karen Kaiser, curator of education, at (509) 313-6613.
Marilyn Lysohir is an accomplished sculptor known for her monumental ceramic work and installations, which evolve from very personal points of inspiration.
In 1998, Lysohir unveiled “The Dark Size of Dazzle,” a two-ton, 24-foot-long, 9-foot-high ceramic battleship at the Boise Art Museum. This entire installation will be on display in the Jundt Galleries, including a life-size “bathroom” tableau. Lysohir’s work appears often in books published about ceramics in the last 20 years and her pieces are in museum collections throughout the United States. Lysohir has been an artist in residence at Archie Bray, the Kansas City Art Institute, and has served as a visiting artist and Professor at New York State College of Ceramics in Alfred, New York. She lectures and conducts workshops, and demonstrations throughout the United States. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Northern University and a Master of Fine Arts from Washington State University. Her work has been described as “overwhelming” not just physically but also in its simplicity.
Shani Marchant’s section of the exhibition, titled “Between Two Worlds,” is a collection of paintings that confront the space between the hearing and the deaf. Marchant, who has been deaf since birth, learned to read lips and to speak phonetically at Spokane’s Edna Davis School for the Deaf. By age 10, she was mainstreamed into school and the hearing world, where she began painting at an early age. To Marchant, painting is language. She often uses text in her work; sometimes writing whole paragraphs. She studied painting and printmaking at Fort Wright College in Spokane, and the Art Students League in New York, where she worked with Will Barnet. At the Maryland Institute of Art, Marchant was greatly influenced by Grace Hartigan, a widely respected abstract painter. Marchant has lived and painted on both coasts, and her work often reflects the clash of the urban and the rural. Marchant uses grids as representations of her interactions with urban living. For many years she painted life underwater, another silent world. Her great love of color is evident throughout her images.
An evening with the artists begins with a lecture at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 29 in the Jundt Auditorium, followed by public preview reception until 8 p.m.
The “Close In” series of exhibitions began in 2012 as a way to showcase the work of regional artists during the summer months and to attract summer visitors to the museum. The Jundt Galleries are open year-round and this series provides a venue for local artists who work in painting, drawing, sculpture, prints, and installations.
The museum’s exhibitions are free and open to the public from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Saturday; closed Sundays and University holidays. For more information, call the Jundt Art Museum at (509) 313-6843 or visit its website at www.gonzaga.edu/jundt. To schedule a docent-led tour, please call Karen Kaiser, curator of education, at (509) 313-6613.