Visual Arts: Nenno pieces transcend time, space
Sculptor Mardis Nenno has long been fascinated with the early Italian Renaissance, particularly Giotto’s frescoes.
Giotto di Bondone, considered the first of the great Renaissance painters, decorated chapels and churches across Italy during the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The deep, intense blue of his skies was thought to reflect a heavenly space and the color became known as “Giotto’s blue.”
In her show, “Mardis Nenno: Oriel,” opening today in the Arcade Gallery of Gonzaga University’s Jundt Art Museum, Nenno reaches back to Giotto.
“I deliberately tried to come as close as I could to Giotto’s blue in many of the pieces,” says Nenno, “in order to reference a transcendent, or heavenly state.”
The themes of movement and transition are intrinsic in the dozen site-specific sculptures, partly because of the physical constraints of the setting.
The Arcade Gallery, a long, rectangular entry area, has glass-enclosed floor-to-ceiling display cases along two walls.
“I intentionally made work that was very frontal, flattened and pretty lineal,” says Nenno. “But each piece also gives viewers a way upward and out.”
The objects in the exhibit are a series of ladders, windows and chairs, “all divulging a narrative of climbing up, out and through,” Seattle writer Sheri Boggs says in the exhibition brochure.
“In many cases the feeling is one of stretching, of getting closer to an elevated realm,” Boggs writes.
The piece titled “Migration” features a solitary sparrow on the bottom rung of a rickety ladder.
“The bird is all by itself and it is not on a sure path,” says Nenno. “Yet there is a sense that it is being inexorably drawn to something.”
The sculpture, while heavily grounded with the weight at the bottom, has implied movement from one plane to another.
“I think, just as birds are drawn north and south,” Nenno says, “we humans have a similar pull toward something unknowable or unnamable. On a deep, personal level we have a longing for the infinite.”
Nenno recently returned from a nine-month residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena. She teaches art at Spokane Falls Community College and is represented by the Lorinda Knight Gallery.
A free public reception for the artist is today from 6 to 7:15 p.m., followed by a public lecture at 7:30 in the Jundt Art Museum lecture hall, 202 E. Cataldo Ave.
An exhibit by nationally known quilt artist Faith Ringgold is on display through April 4 in the main Jundt Galleries.
The museum is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. It will be closed April 6 to 9 for Easter holidays. Admission is free.
For more information on the Jundt Art Museum and its exhibitions call (509) 323-6611.
‘Spring Art Exhibit’
Seven Inland Northwest artists are being showcased in the “Spring Art Exhibit” Friday and Saturday at Quality Floors and Interiors in downtown Spokane.
Artwork in the show ranges from oil and watercolor paintings to custom-designed stained glass.
Look for the florals and landscapes by Marsha Marcuson, outdoor scenes by Shirley Hackett, still lifes and Tuscan scenes by Angelica DiChiara-Hardin, romantic landscapes by Ellen Blaschke and figurative paintings by Peace Wilkinson.
There also will be art glass windows by Isaac Smith and stained glass by Ken Norris.
The two-day show runs Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the store, 706 E. Sprague. There will be live music and hors d’oeuvres.
For more information call (509) 747-2295.
April openings
“The Parlor Art Gallery in the Paulsen House at the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane will be showing the work of several local artists from April through June.
The gallery is featuring pastels by Steve Belzman and Dianne Munkittrick, watercolors by Sandie Key, photography by Dave Ryan and various works by Felisa Carranza.
The gallery, 245 E. 13th Ave., is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call (509) 624-3191.
“Newport, Wash., leather worker Kim Soares will be center stage during April at the Art Works Gallery, 214 N. First Ave. in downtown Sandpoint. For more information call (208) 263-2642 or see www.sandpointartworks.com.
“Vern Judkins’ sculpted walking sticks and Hilda Bradshaw’s pottery are featured during April at the Northwest Artists Co Op Gallery, 217 Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene.
Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is an artists’ reception April 13 from 5 to 8 p.m.