The June art show at MICA Gallery (1210 Turner St., Lansing) will feature artists Bruce Thayer and Ilene Curts. The show opens Wednesday, June 1, featuring special hours on Saturday, June 4 for “Be a Tourist in Your Own Town” and an artist reception on Sunday, June 5 from noon until 4pm for First Sunday Gallery Walk.
Bruce Thayer’s work has evolved over time to touch on social issues, word play, and figurative abstraction. He works in printmaking, watercolor and acrylic on paper, sometimes collaged, from his home studio in Michigan.
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Thayer has a BFA from Central Michigan University, did printmaking and belonged to the Both Up Co-op Gallery in Berkeley, Calif., and completed a MFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He studied under such artists as Karl Wirsum, Christina Ramberg, Phil Hanson, and Ray Yoshida, becoming interested in figurative work influenced by cartoon, narrative, and humor. He has been associated with Printworks Gallery Chicago and Sonia Zaks Gallery Chicago.
Ilene Curts is a still life artist based in Michigan. She studied life drawing in Cambridge, Mass., where she belonged to the Boston Visual Artist’s Union – but it was a move to a studio on a farm that inspired her to take up still life painting. Curts follows in the steps of contemporary realism.
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She explains, “I enjoy the abstract nature of painting, and the quality of the paint itself. I use a lot of objects from the forties and fifties for their design. Objects carry on them potent bits of color, wear, memory, and character. I like to paint familiar objects in a non-traditional setting to challenge myself to find visual ideas but continue to explore tradition as well.”
MICA Gallery is open 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, with special hours for Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5.
Michigan Institute for Contemporary Art (MICA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving as a catalyst for quality arts programming. See www.oldtownarts.org or call 517-371-4600 for more information.
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