WENDY MARUYAMA | The wildLIFE Project
Penland Gallery Presents The wildLIFE Project
The Penland Gallery proudly presents Wendy Maruyama: the wildLIFE Project, a mixed-media exhibition that draws attention to the plight of elephants. Through a moving installation of large-scale objects, shrine forms and informational panels, the show creates a powerful aesthetic environment and makes a compelling case for the preservation of animals in the wild. This touring exhibition originated at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. It will be on display at the Penland Gallery from Tuesday, July 12 through Sunday, September 4 with an opening reception on Saturday, July 16 from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.
Furniture maker, artist, and educator Wendy Maruyama has been making innovative work for forty years. While her earlier work was built around traditional craft objects, in recent years she has moved beyond the boundaries of studio craft and into the realm of installation and social practice. The wildLIFE Project was inspired by a trip to Kenya where she saw elephants and other large animals in the wild and met with wildlife advocates to learn about the impact of poaching.
In this show, the elephant is memorialized in monumental form through a series of masks, eight to twelve feet in height constructed from wood panels tied together with string. Also included are several shrine forms, one of which is based on a traditional Buddhist altar. This beautifully crafted furniture piece incorporates an image of an elephant, flowers, a candle, an incense burner and a handmade bell that rings every fifteen-minutes to memorialize the elephants that are being killed for their ivory. Another piece, titled Sarcophagus, is a wood and glass box that encases a stack of tusks made from blown glass. Maruyama made these objects in collaboration with glass artists Nancy Callan and Dan Friday during a residency at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington. A third shrine incorporates video, and the wall panels complement the artwork with photographs, text and graphics.
Curator Elizabeth Kozlowski has followed Maruyama’s work for many years. She says the artist views this body of work not only as an art project but as an advocacy tool. “The social-practice component of her artwork is successful in combining art, advocacy, education, and community,” says Kozlowski. “Her work manages to pull you in with stirring visuals and keep you engaged with multiple layers of content.”
Maruyama was a professor of woodworking and furniture design at San Diego State University in California for more than thirty years. Her work has been exhibited in New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, Seoul and London, and can be found in many museum collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Japan/US Fellowship, a Fulbright Research Grant and the California Civil Liberties Public Education Grant. She has also been an instructor at Penland School of Crafts several times.
The wildLIFE Project has been shown at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Texas and the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. After it leaves the Penland Gallery, it will travel to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia and the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design.
This exhibition is a great opportunity to visit the recently renovated and expanded Penland Gallery, which is also featuring paintings by Kreh Mellick in the Focus Gallery beginning July 15. The Visitors Center Gallery has an ongoing display of objects that illuminate the history of Penland School of Crafts. And the gallery sales area presents work by hundreds of artists affiliated with the school.
Robin Dreyer | Penland Communications and Marketing Manager
About the Artist
Website
About the Project
Exhibition Folio
About the Elephants
Exhibition Wall Panels
Wildlife Preservation Groups
Big Life Foundation
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Elephant Voices
Amboseli Trust For Elephants
Save the Elephants
Tour Venues
September 18, 2015 – January 3, 2016
Houston Center For Craft | Houston, Texas
February 5 – April 23, 2016
The Center for Art in Wood | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
July 12 – September 4, 2016
Penland School of Craft | Penland, North Carolina
September 23, 2016 – January 15, 2017
Chrysler Museum of Art | Norfolk, Virginia
February 11 – June 4, 2017
Museum of Craft and Design | San Francisco, California
October 7, 2017 – February 11, 2018
Oceanside Museum of Art | Oceanside, California