Feb. 22, 2002
Contact: Janet Marstine (509-963-3133/e-mail: marstinj@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Five artists whose works are included in the What a Doll! exhibition will be featured in a panel discussion Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. at the Sarah Spurgeon Gallery on Central Washington University's campus in Ellensburg. The discussion follows an opening reception, which begins at 5 p.m. at Spurgeon Gallery.
The five participants will discuss why contemporary artists use doll imagery in their work. Panel members are: Susan Fosnot, Woodstock, Ill.; Sherry Markovitz, Seattle; Phyllis Plattner, Bethesda, Md.; Marita Dingus, Auburn; and lisa sweet, Olympia.
Fosnot makes oil-painted cloth dolls shaped by 19th century women's craft work and by a contemporary feminist sensibility. She leads workshops on cloth dolls and on the history of doll-making. Fosnot is a member of the Original Doll Artists Council of America. Her work has been featured in the magazine Contemporary Doll Collector and in the Chicago Tribune.
Markovitz creates sculptures of dolls and animal trophies, heavily encrusted with beads, charms, feathers, flowers and other adornments. She also works in mixed media on paper, producing spare images of dolls and other artifacts from her childhood. Her art has been shown at the Brooklyn Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the American Craft Museum, the Cleveland Museum, and the National Museum of American Art. Markovitz's exhibitions have been reviewed by the New York Times and Art in America.
Plattner, in paintings and drawings, contrasts traditional Mayan tourist dolls with Zapatista guerrilla dolls produced in Chiapas, Mexico, since the 1994 uprising there. Plattner teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited in Florence, Paris, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Plattner has lectured at Columbia College in Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Dingus makes dolls shaped by African traditions. Many of her works explore the institutions of slavery and colonialism. She has studied in Nigeria and Ghana and served as a delegate to the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing. In 1999, Dingus was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her works have been seen at the Artemesia Gallery in Chicago, Stanford University, and the Seattle Art Museum.
sweet fabricates dolls that examine the impact of her Roman Catholic upbringing. She teaches studio art and medieval studies at Evergreen State University. She has exhibited at the Cinque Gallery in New York, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Beloit College, and the University of Wisconsin. sweet's work is included in The Best of Printmaking, by Ruth Weisberg (1997).
Several other What a Doll! artists from across the U.S. will attend. Janet Marstine, CWU art historian and guest curator of the exhibition, will moderate the discussion. Liahna Armstrong, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, will introduce the program.
Parking for this event is available at Nicholson Pavilion, directly across the street from Sarah Spurgeon Gallery. CWU is also offering van service between the Spurgeon Gallery and downtown Ellensburg during the opening reception and the panel discussion. Vans will stop every 15 minutes at the Rotary Pavilion (Pearl Street between 5th and 6th) and the Spurgeon Gallery from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Sarah Spurgeon Gallery is located in the department of art, Randall Hall (14th Avenue between Walnut Street and Alder Street). Hours for the exhibition are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and noon to 3 p.m. weekends. Closed Easter weekend. Admission is free of charge.
This exhibition is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support has been provided by the Central Washington University Faculty Senate Research and Development Fund, the Central Washington University College of Arts and Humanities, the Central Washington University Department of Art, the Associated Students of CWU, the Ellensburg Daily Record, the Ellensburg Art Commission, the City of Ellensburg Lodging Tax and the Kittitas County Lodging Tax.
