Octagon Center for the Arts

Elem/Mid/High 2018
2018-04-19 - 2018-05-05 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Elem/Mid/High 2018
An Annual Exhibition of Local Elementary, Middle, and High School Senior Students
April 19 – May 5, 2018
MAIN GALLERY & SWEENEY GALLERY
The Octagon Center for the Arts showcases artwork by local elementary, middle, and high school students annually. High School art instructors from schools within 20 miles of the Octagon Center for the Arts are welcome to register students in their fall and spring classes for participation.

Nice Life DAVID PARKER
2018-04-06 - 2018-05-19 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Nice Life
DAVID PARKER
April 6 – May 19, 2018
COMMUNITY GALLERY
Using a limited palette of pine, maple, vinyl, griptape, and spray enamel I’m looking at the material language of subculture. The work is an abstract look at the outsiders: skaters, rockers, hippies, artists, stoners, goths, shoegazers… and how they project their identity to outsiders and signal their place within their own community. The work has been limited to four standard sizes referencing how they adorn their bodies and our personal spaces sizes 6”x 8” Pins/Patches, 13” x 11” T-shirts, 40” x 40” Posters, and 40” x 84“ Banners.

Metamorphosis DAN JOHNSON
2018-03-12 - 2018-03-31 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Metamorphosis
DAN JOHNSON
March 12 – 31, 2018
COMMUNITY GALLERY
Closing reception: Friday, March 30 5-7 PM
Metamorphosis relates to my broader theme of the possibilities of change and transformation as expressed through the human figure, focusing on explorations of transformative or fugitive ideas about the human figure. Using line, I want to discover the energy possible through gesture and improvisation. My work of the past few years has also focused on using layering and reductive processes to discover new textures and effects, followed by drawing forms again on those new surfaces. Current work relates to past work by using similar methods and ideas but also builds on those by altering the surface textures and the spontaneously created subject matter. Line is very important to my work, stressing the expressive qualities possible when drawing from memory. Inspiration is drawn from memory and relates to the human figure, natural objects like rocks and trees, and fabricated structures like buildings.

A Negro From the South CAMERON GRAY
2018-02-19 - 2018-03-06 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
A Negro From the South
CAMERON GRAY
February 19 – March 6, 2018
COMMUNITY GALLERY
The United States of America is the country where I was born and where I have lived for most of my life. In this country, I am a second-class citizen. As a child, I was raised to maneuver through systems that were not created for a person like myself. Many people may not be able to empathize with that statement. It might be incomprehensible, and that is okay. This exhibition will give perspective on my world. When entering those gallery doors, the viewer is attempting to understand; compliant to walk through other minorities’ shoes, and mine, giving voice to the people that are voiceless. The current atmosphere within this country calls for action, a time to speak up and open our eyes to injustice. This is the time to reconsider the meaning of humanity and to create an America for all.
Join us for an Artist Panel on People of Color in the Arts
February 22, 2018 at 6PM in the Community Gallery : Join the Octagon Center for the Arts and the Multicultural Liaison Office of the ISU College of Design for an inclusive artist panel and discussion on people of color in the arts. Panelists will include Brenda Jones, University Professor in Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University, Mitchell Squire, Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University, Eulanda Sanders, Professor of Apparel, Events and Hospitality Management at Iowa State University, and Cameron Gray, Master of Fine Arts student at Iowa State University. The discussion will be facilitated by Dr. Reginald Stewart, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at Iowa State University.

50th Annual Clay, Fiber, Paper, Glass, Metal, Wood
2018-01-26 - 2018-04-07 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
50th Annual Clay, Fiber, Paper, Glass, Metal, Wood
January 26 – April 7, 2018
MAIN GALLERY & SWEENEY GALLERY
2018 marks the 50th annual All-Media juried exhibit at the Octagon Center for the Arts. The first Clay, Fiber, Paper, Glass, Metal, Woodopened in 1968, two years after the organization’s founding in 1966. The Octagon was founded out of the community’s desire to provide exciting art experiences for the public and professional opportunities for artists. This show the organization’s attempt to fully embody the founding vision. As a result, it has a reputation for being one of the best group juried shows in Iowa due to its national reach, high standards for jurors, and significant cash awards. The title of the show reflects a media-focused theme. The founders believed that many art forms seen as lowly “crafts,” such as ceramics or woodworking, should be elevated to compete with the level of other “fine” arts. The idea of excellent craftsmanship combined with compelling ideas continues to be a central theme as artwork is selected. This is the longest repeating exhibit at the Octagon and is responsible for bringing some of the most prestigious artwork into the community.
Juror: Peter Pinnell
Peter Pinnell’s first professional position was as Artist in Residence at the Octagon Art Center in Ames, Iowa, a position he held from 1984 to 1987. “I loved the Octagon, and my wife and I loved living in Ames. It was the perfect place for me at that point in my career”. After leaving Ames, Pinnell spent eight years in Kansas City, working as a studio potter and teaching part-time at the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1995 Pinnell was offered a faculty position at the University of Nebraska, where he is now Professor of Art.
In addition to his teaching, Pinnell writes, lectures and exhibits his pottery widely. Over the last 20 years he has been an active presenter with NCECA (the National council on Education in the Ceramics Arts), and his ceramics column, “As Far as I Know” has appeared in Clay Times magazine since 1998. His artwork has appeared in exhibitions across the US and in a number of venues overseas.

Amalgamation CHRIS MARTIN
2018-01-05 - 2018-02-17 | IA
Amalgamation
CHRIS MARTIN
January 5 – February 17, 2018
COMMUNITY GALLERY
As developing countries and emerging economies modernize, the traditional crafts that reflect the unique cultural and social traits upon which these countries have been built, are often disregarded opting for western goods instead. This is something that Chris Martin wants to do something about.
Martin’s own creative expression has been deeply influenced by the traditional crafts of Ghana, where he spent two years as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, and India where he has spent time as an artist in residence and most recently as a Fulbright Scholar. Through his primary medium, studio furniture, Martin hopes not only to help expand an appreciation for these traditional crafts, but also to assist his fellow artisans in Ghana and India to sustain their livelihoods through continued practice in their trades.
This exhibition introduces a series of functional furniture pieces that Martin hopes to produce in limited quantities to create a new avenue for traditional artisans to continue their work. Currently, he is working with Ga coffin makers, kente weavers, brass casters, and glass bead makers in Ghana. In India, he has collaborated with a traditional lathe turner, print block carvers, metal casters, and Mata-ni-Pachedi artists. The results of these partnerships have manifested as contemporary western furniture pieces with an ethnic flare. Martin’s focus moving forward is to produce designs that pay homage to traditional crafts and the artisans that make them, with hopes of opening new markets for their timeless crafts.
Join us for an Artist Talk with Chris Martin
February 1, 2018 at 6PM in the Community Gallery : Chris will speak about his experiences in Ghana and India where he worked with local artisans who continue to practice the traditional arts and crafts of their homelands.
And Special Guest Artist ERIC ADJETEY ANANG
Eric Adjetey Anang is the grandson of Seth Kane Kwei who is credited with founding the tradition of fantasy coffins in the early 1950s. Eric has spent his life practicing and sharing the tradition his grandfather started. Fantasy coffins are unique to Ghana and more specifically to the Ga tribe. The Ga people believe that death is simply another step in life and that the dead move into another world or dimension when they pass. They believe that their ancestors are more powerful than the living and must be treated with great respect, so they are driven to appease them in death, and a unique coffin is one way to do that. These coffins are made in the forms of various items from a fish, for someone who spent his life as a fisherman, or an airplane for someone who had always hoped to fly. These creations can be seen in museums and galleries around the world. Mr. Anang’s creations have become highly sought after as contemporary pieces of “ethnic art”.

Running With Scissors STEVE HOSCH
2017-11-16 - 2017-12-21 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Running With Scissors
STEVE HOSCH
NOVEMBER 16 – DECEMBER 21, 2017, COMMUNITY GALLERY
Making art, to me, is not necessarily a response to the world. Rather, it’s often just a reaction to what’s rattling around in my head. It’s an attempt to make sense of my own inner clutter; regrets, hopes, doubts, dreams, fears. It’s problem solving. It’s catharsis. It’s play. It’s taking risks and letting go. Ultimately, it’s akin to closing my eyes and running with scissors even as my conscience holds up his hands and screams “Stop, idiot!”
Not surprisingly, my process is also disjointed. It, too, begins with clutter, the tangible kind, the collage artist’s raw materials: paper. Boxes and files and piles of paper. From there I sift and sort, and an image, color, shape, or snippet of text sometimes calls to me, asking to be the focal point. Then it’s simply a matter of more sifting, gathering complementary bits and pieces, arranging, shifting, cutting, turning, rearranging all the while trying to ignore my conscience (he’s a jerk) gluing, layering, tearing, sanding, slinging paint, adding transfers, and so on. Eventually, I step back and either smile or curse.
This exhibition is the result of a couple of years worth of that process. Paper and scissors and glue (oh my).

Relief From Endlessness ANDA TANAKA & JEREMY RUDD
2017-11-03 - 2017-12-21 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Relief From Endlessness
ANDA TANAKA & JEREMY RUDD
NOVEMBER 3 – DECEMBER 21, 2017, SWEENEY GALLERY
Jeremy Rudd
Artsist Bio A native Iowan, Rudd grew up in rural Benton County thirty minutes outside Cedar Rapids. He attended Iowa State University receiving a BFA in visual Studies with an emphasis on Three Dimensional Design, and completed his Master of Fine Arts at the CVPA of The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He was a Professor of fine arts for four years at Lasell College, Boston MA and Bristol Community College, Fall River MA. Since returning to the Midwest Rudd has worked as Assistant Professor of Art for divine word College in Epworth, IA, and worked as a professional artist completing many liturgical, private and commercial projects.
Anda Tanaka
Arist Statement I have lived in the Midwest for my entire life and have always appreciated our open spaces- cornfields, prairies, the huge starry night sky. Until recently, though, I did not realize how important the Midwestern landscape is to my art practice and how I yearn for expansiveness to find peace within myself.
Beginning in January 2014 I endeavored to make one 2 inch by 2 inch painting or drawing every day for a year. The project called for discipline but also trust in intuition. Reviewing the pieces now points to my impulse to create imagined and remembered landscapes: At least a third of the three-hundred-something squares could be interpreted as landscapes.
In July of 2015 I visited my brother in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina where the trees grow tight together and the roads wind endlessly up hills and mountainsides. The novel setting was beautiful and exciting, but I felt a sense of claustrophobia. We were always climbing in search of a clear view, to see the sky above or the valley below.
Since then I have become committed to dedicating an extended period of time to painting and printing landscapes that specifically explore my attachment and deep interest in the vistas of the states I call home, Iowa and Minnesota. The abundance of open space in these places lends itself to creating abstractions that are visually quiet. In paring down a landscape, the essence of my experience of the space is intensified.
We can search for drama in our travels, but here at home we have a deep and special calm.
Artist Bio Anda Tanaka is a Minneapolis-based painter and printmaker. She was raised in Ames, Iowa and is thrilled to be showing at the Octagon, the site of some of her very first art classes! Drawn north to study music and studio art at St. Olaf College, she has lived in Minnesota for the past 10 years. In 2013 Anda completed an emerging artist residency at St. Olaf, during which she continued to study painting and printmaking with Wendell Arneson and John Sauer, respectively. She now works out of a studio in her home as well as the artist co-op at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis.

Kawishiwi River AARON SQUADRONI
2017-10-06 - 2017-11-11 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Kawishiwi River
AARON SQUADRONI
ON DISPLAY OCTOBER 6 – NOVEMBER 11, 2017, COMMUNITY GALLERY
Artist Statement:
“The Midwest is presently a battleground for resources. Fracking, oil pipelines, mining, and drilling are just some of the expanding industries in this region. In states like Minnesota and Wisconsin where the rugged beauty of the land is part of the state’s identity, these new industries create strong conflicts between environmental and industrial stakeholders. In northern Minnesota, the Duluth Complex is a geological formation bordering the Mesabi Iron Range and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It contains one of the largest untapped copper‐nickel deposits in the world. Industry representatives estimate that the new sulfide mining district could eventually exceed Minnesota’s iron ore industry in size. The issue of whether or not to establish sulfide mines so close to a protected wilderness known for its pristine water is a passionately debated topic on the Iron Range.
‘The Kawishiwi River flows over the Duluth Complex, and is at the center of the region in contention as mining companies are in the process of obtaining permits and conducting environmental impact studies in order to mine the area for copper, nickel and other precious metals. The Kawishiwi River series is a collection of copper drawn land portraits. These land portraits record a history of landmarks and sacred spaces based on traditional legends, government treaties, current disputes, and future visions. My intention is to create continuity where great changes have occurred in the landscape or are likely to occur in the future. Each portrait merges an image of the landscape with a symbol or object from the landscape. This catalog of imagery is meant to heighten public awareness about how the future of the Kawishiwi River will take shape, while simultaneously preserving its identity in the past.
‘Copper has been contained in the rocks of the Kawishiwi River for many thousands of years. It is now highly sought after by mining companies. Using copper as a drawing meduim is important to me in this series because of its role in the history of the Kawishiwi River and its impending impact on the river’s future. Copper also has a certain delicacy due to its lack of value range. The resulting lightness of the drawings require the viewer to approach close to the image. A narrative of the Kawishiwi River is revealed slowly and formed from a series of intimate exchanges between the viewer and the artworks.” – Aaron Squadroni

Pieced Fabric: Historic Quilts of Ames
2017-08-19 - 2017-10-28 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Pieced Fabric: Historic Quilts of Ames
ON DISPLAY AUGUST 19 – OCTOBER 28, 2017, SWEENEY GALLERY
Quilting has always been a social outlet for women in Iowa. Old quilts are personally created signed gifts from quilters of the past, many of whom braved hardships as they sought a new life in a new land. They were made from materials collected by women who had little to spare. They are sturdy but worn from strawberry gathering, picnics, protecting furniture, and birthing babies.
Throughout the years, the Ames Historical Society has received a variety of beautiful quilts for their collection. Many of these quilts come from long-time Ames residents, and tell the unique story of Ames history. The quilts tell the story of quilting as an art form for Iowa women.

Saw You On The Sidewalks of Russia KAREN COOPER
2017-08-18 - 2017-09-30 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Saw You On The Sidewalks of Russia
(видел тебя на тротуарах России!)
On Display August 18 – September 30, 2017, Community Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 26 from 3-5 P.M.
Doesn’t matter if it’s the guy who walks in the door while we wait at the dentist’s office, or the couple who walk by our table into the café, the twenty-ish aged girl in the really short skirt and 4 inch heels, or even the biker doing a wheelie on his BMX. It’s a worldwide occupation, this people watching gig.
Saw You On The Sidewalks Of Russia (видел тебя на тротуарах России!) is images, paintings, of people that we want to be different, because they live in a country on the other side of the world. Are they so very different? Not really – their hopes and dreams are a lot like ours.
We are pulled in to see. We are all human, and no matter which side of the earth we live on, no matter what the name of our country of residence, no matter which side of the border we’re confined to – we watch. With this exhibit I give you the opportunity to watch through my artist eyes – to people watch with me. Yes, it’s a grand adventure. – Karen Cooper

Deeply Rooted STUDIO ART QUILT ASSOCIATION
2017-08-11 - 2017-10-28 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Deeply Rooted
STUDIO ART QUILT ASSOCIATION
ON DISPLAY AUGUST 11 – OCTOBER 28, 2017, MAIN GALLERY
Deeply Rooted, a juried exhibition organized by the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), explores the meaning of “roots” through the quilt medium. Thirty works are featured, all created by SAQA members from Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. SAQA, founded in 1989, is an organization of more than 3,000 fiber artists devoted to the education, exhibition, promotion, professional development, and documentation of the medium.
Pat Bishop, “Cedar Swamp #5” Fused and machine quilted, hand-dyed linen and other materials, silk and silk ties, commercial fabrics, 2015, Collection of the Artist
