Carnegie Mellon University
January 11, 2016

Miller Gallery Hosts “MAXIMUM MINIMUM IN UNUM,” Jan. 23 – Feb. 28

All Participating Artists Are Alumni of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Art

By Margaret Cox / Miller Gallery / 412-268-4754 / mc94@andrew.cmu.edu
and Pam Wigley / College of Fine Arts / 412-268-1047 / pwigley@andrew.cmu.edu

Ribbon RackPeter Coffin, Untitled (Ribbons), 2012

Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Gallery presents “MAXIMUM MINIMUM IN UNUM,” Saturday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Feb. 28, on the CMU campus. A special reception celebrating the featured works is scheduled for 6 - 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 23. The exhibit and reception are open to the public. The reception will feature a performance by the Institute for New Feeling.

The exhibition was curated by Visiting Professor of Art Joshua Reiman and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art Susanne Slavick. All of the participating artists earned either their bachelor’s or master’s degree from CMU’s School of Art between 1970 and 2013. Their work eludes maximalist or minimalist classification, according to the curators’ program notes. Rather, the artists “probe or collapse extremes, whether ideological or aesthetic.”

The exhibition includes works on paper, paintings, sculptures, videos, installation and performance art. Slavick said gallery visitors “will experience static and time-based works across media, including an absurdist video narrative, a kaleidoscopic animation of world currencies, a gilded surrealist frame, nostalgic machines and kinetic installations, black glass blown into a hollow tree trunk, paper pulp cast directly onto a city alley, an urban landscape, photographs of a house consumed by fire and a woman consumed by shopping, a skirted ladder, tumbling blocks, stacks of take away newspapers and a performance involving skin cream … and much, much more (or less).”

Rotating featured installations and artists’ talks are part of the exhibition. The schedule follows:

Artists Talks (part of the School of Art Lecture Series)

  • Jan. 19, 5 p.m. – Laleh Mehran, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, College of Fine Arts (CFA) 111;
  • Jan. 26, 5 p.m. – Ben Bigelow, Kresge Theater, CFA.

Rotating Featured Installations

  • Jan. 23-31 – Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt, Nina Sarnelle), “Furthering Cream”, 2016. Animation by Gary Tyler;
  • Feb. 2-14 – Felipe Castelblanco, from the series “The Wrong Place,” “Free (Get a Life)” and “White Noise”; and
  • Feb. 16-28 – Shana Moulton, “The Undiscovered Drawer,” 2013, 9:19 min.

Participating artists are: Ben Bigelow, Felipe Castelblanco, Peter Coffin, Ron Desmett, Maggie Haas, Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt and Nina Sarnelle), Laleh Mehran, Shana Moulton, Zak Prekop, Paul Rouphail, Diane Samuels, Carrie Schneider, Jina Valentine, Rebecca Vaughan and Gregory Witt.

Learn more.

See details for the Jan. 22 reception.