Galleries open to the public through March 9

Indiana University Northwest School of the Arts is pleased to announce its Winter 2023 exhibitions: Communivacation by Michele Stutts and Manifesting the Unseen: New Work by Edwin Shelton.

Communivacation by Michele Stutts

Stutts (born in Liverpool, UK) is a contemporary artist. Her materials are rich in history, such as old fabric and leather, rusted or tarnished metals, and other remnants forgotten by time or worn out by nature. Once gathered, her growing collection of "treasures" gets deconstructed and reconstructed into powerful pieces of art. Often, these objects take on an entirely new life in Stutts's work, as she intrinsically weaves them into new settings, ideas, and concepts. For the work in the exhibition, Stutts works predominantly with found objects discovered in her Humboldt Park neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago.

She received her Associate of Art from the American Academy of Art College, BFA from Chicago State University, and MFA from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been exhibited in group shows in New York, Rhode Island, Indiana, Ohio, Washington, and Minnesota; her international exhibitions include Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, and Canada. She completed a month-long artist's residency in Paris in October 2005. Stutts uses wry commentary and humor to convey her work's conceptual underpinnings, which examine socio-political ethics, mental health, beauty, and sexuality.

Stutts will give a public artist talk in Savannah gallery on Thursday, February 2, at 1 p.m. Communivacation runs January 17 – March 9, 2023, in the IU Northwest Gallery for Contemporary Art, located in the Savannah Center.

Manifesting the Unseen, New Work by Edwin Shelton is a selection of recent artworks. Shelton’s practice involves transforming discarded objects into innovative forms and compositions based on his intuition, decades of creative experiences, and spiritual adventures. The sculptural reliefs are fabricated structures covered with fabric scraps, upholstery thread, papier-mâché, fake gems, glitter, fluorescent paint, etc. After Shelton applies the camouflage of fabrics to the forms, he visually strengthens the surfaces with his menu of mixed materials. In his work, he intends to engage the viewers with a novel experience with his non-representational assemblages based on how they interpret what they see.

Shelton received his BFA at Virginia Commonwealth University and his MFA in sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed his final credits at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. Shelton was an adjunct faculty member in the sculpture department at Virginia Commonwealth University early in his career. He is a dedicated and active member of the Northwest Indiana art community and is currently an art teacher at Marquette Catholic High School in Michigan City, Indiana.

Special viewing hours with Shelton are Saturday, February 12 and February 19 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Manifesting the Unseen: New Work from January 31 – March 9, 2023, in the School of the Arts Gallery, Arts & Sciences Building.

To learn more about the School of the Arts, visit https://www.iun.edu/arts/.