The exhibits will be open through September 22. Life on the water is the current theme of both exhibitions at the Yeiser Art Center. Eleven boat sculptures by artist Rob Millard-Mendez will be on display in addition to work from the Yeiser Art Center's permanent collection.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Millard-Mendez grew up in a city surrounded by an incredible industrial past. He spent a significant portion of his early life on boats and docks as his father was a commercial fisherman. His current body of work "A Feeble Armada" draws from these experiences. His sculptures resemble large toys, but are far from childlike, laden with metaphors and meanings of age-old narratives. The work is carefully and skillfully crafted from traditional materials including metals and wood, with a playful element added through more alternative materials, including mousetraps, dice and coins.
Millard-Mendez received an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 1999. He currently teaches as an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. His work has been shown in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries across 45 states. His work may be seen online at: http://robmillardmendez.com
"River Reflections: Work from the Yeiser Permanent Collection" highlights the life on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Several works from renowned Kentucky painter and printmaker Harlan Hubbard, will be on display, in addition to other artists from the collection. The exhibit celebrates the revival of the riverboat tours, with several stops of the "American Queen" and the "Queen of the Mississippi" planned for August. The Yeiser Art Center will be open for extended hours during the days in which the riverboat stops are planned.
The exhibition is sponsored in memory of Barbara Crounse Kleet. Exhibit donors include Bob Fabry and Susan Taylor, Merrill and Pat Fabry Shanks, Oscar and Jane Gamble, Sandy Gutermuth, and Allan and Julie Kleet.
For more information about what's happening at the Yeiser Art Center, visit: www.theyeiser.org
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, provides operating support to the Yeiser Art Center with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
