Float: New Work by Maria Lux

Press Release

A cross-disciplinary installation by Illinois-based artist Maria Lux that explores animals and the essential role they play in human understanding will be on view in the University Galleries in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne from January 20 through March 27, 2015. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on February 1, February 8, February 22, March 1, March 8, and March 15 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Tuesday, January 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. The artist will give a talk on her work in the Cheng Library Auditorium at 2:00 p.m. following the reception.

The exhibition titled Float: New Work by Maria Lux, features a large-scale installation with accompanying video created while Lux was the fall 2014 William Paterson Artist-in-Residence. Lux used the Computer Numerical Control Mill in the University’s Center for New Art to create a life-size parade float. The machine, linked through software, produces a set of drill tip motions, allowing the artist to create three-dimensional objects out of Styrofoam. The subject matter of the sculpture combines historical references to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, and tales about raising and transporting sheep in North Atlantic island communities.

In addition to the life-size float, Lux created a miniature version of her piece using a 3D printer. This replica is the centerpiece of a stop-motion animation, which presents fictitious television coverage of the 2068 Tournament of Roses Parade. Gallery visitors will have the opportunity to see the float up close as well as in its imagined context.

Replacing animal and plant life with technology and synthetic materials, Lux’s installation speaks to sustainability, but rather than the natural kind, she presents one of artificial control. Ron Broglio, senior scholar at the Global Institute of Sustainability, points out about Lux’s work, “The artificial flowers and fake sheep will never die but only because they have never lived. Lux’s stop-motion animation shoots the ‘animal,’ repositions it, and shoots it again and again creating still images that when ordered and rendered bring the forms to animated video life. The lives and deaths of actual animals take place off screen, unrecognized and far from the colorful event of the parade.”

A catalogue of the exhibition includes a foreword by gallery director Kristen Evangelista, an essay by Ron Broglio, images of the artwork, video stills, and Lux’s biography. The catalogue, designed by Thomas G. Uhlein, William Paterson University professor of art, will be available during the exhibition. Copies of the catalogue can also be requested free of charge.

Lux received her B.F.A. in art and design from Iowa State University, and earned her M.F.A. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has shown her work in a number of solo and two-person exhibitions including: Rat Party City,Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, NC (2014); Animal/Artifact, with David Ross Harper, Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (2013); and Ten to Watch, Figure One Gallery, Champaign, IL (2010). She has participated in many group exhibitions such as: Hunter/Gatherer, University Art Gallery, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO (2014); Ecovisions, McLean Arts Center, Bloomington, IL (2014); PostNatural, Isis Gallery, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN (2013); and A Live Animal, Root Division, San Francisco, CA (2011). She has previously been an artist-in-residence at the Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria, IL, and at Figure One in Champaign, IL. She has received several awards and grants, including the Illinois Arts Council Artist Project Grant, a City of Urbana Arts Grant, and a Creative and Performing Arts Materials Fellowship from the University of Illinois. 

The William Paterson University Artist-in-Residence Program provides access to the University’s unique facility for the production of sculpture, installation, performance, 2D and 3D imaging, interactive media, augmented reality and others. Work produced during the residency will be exhibited in a solo exhibition at the University Galleries.

The exhibition is one of three on view concurrently in the University Galleries. The Court Gallery features Close Encounters: Milcah Bassel, Gianluca Bianchino, and Joseph Gerard Sabatino, a group exhibition by three New Jersey artists who respond to the unique architecture of the exhibition space. On view in the South Gallery is Zhiping Lu: Aesthetics of Printmaking. Organized by the William Paterson Center for Chinese Art in collaboration with the Liu Haisu Museum in China, this exhibition showcases silkscreen prints by master printer Zhiping Lu.

Funding for the residency program including the exhibition and catalogue has been provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts – Art Works grant. Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence: public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and enhancing the livability of communities through the arts. Funding for the University Galleries is also provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair-accessible.  Large-print educational materials are available. For additional information, please call the William Paterson University Galleries at 973-720-2654.