WAUKESHA – Members of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha art faculty have mounted an exhibition of their recent work, which will be on display through October 9 in the Fine Arts Center Gallery on campus at 1500 N. University Dr., Waukesha.
Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. on Tuesdays. The gallery will be open during special events. To arrange a viewing at other times, phone (262) 521-5445. Admission is free and open to the public
Painting and print artist, Stephanie Copoulos-Selle, Waukesha, is showing oil paintings; ceramicist Jeff Noska, Dousman, is exhibiting stoneware glazed in a campus wood-fired kiln; Barbara Reinhart, Dousman, is displaying drawings and sculpture in mixed media; and jewelry artist Heidi Wurlitzer, Delafield, has included works in pewter and silver.
Copoulos-Selle has moved the clutter and unpredictability of life to the canvas. The objects and letters have no pre-conceived meaning. With a discordant background the pleasing colors and sounds – when the letters are verbalized – describe life with its competing array of choices all seeking attention.
Noska continues to relate his ceramic work to architecture, producing useful pieces with artistic flair, and has added the dimension of wood-firing residue to the clay shapes and forms. He deliberately has limited his use of clays, slips, and glazes to take advantage of the flame and ash acquired in wood firing.
Reinhart focuses on the differences and similarities inherent in working directly from observation rather than with “improvised, signified or hybridized images and forms.” She contrasts growth and decay and two- and three-dimensional shapes and surfaces and enjoys manipulating various materials.
Wurlitzer, who designs and creates jewelry, believes that, “because of its size, [jewelry] possesses the ability to become a magical intimate object. These pieces are containers for daily events, concerns, and issues. The juxtaposition of images and objects and the space in between all become important.”
Copoulos-Selle holds an MFA from UW-Milwaukee and has been teaching in the UW System since 1971, at UW-Waukesha since 1976. In addition to painting with oils, she has explored printmaking extensively and produced several artists’ books. She has sold them to such prestigious institutions as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and UW-Milwaukee’s Golda Meir Library’s special collections.
A graduate of UW-Superior with concentrations in ceramics and woodworking, Noska earned his MFA from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 and established his Composite Clay Studio in Dousman shortly after. He helped plan and build the large, Anagama-type wood-fired kiln at the Field Station in 1996 and joined the staff at UW-Waukesha in 1998 and the faculty in 2001. He also led the construction of a smaller wood-fired kiln in 2002 and oversees the firing of both.
Reinhart, who graduated from Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, also studied at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT, at the University of Toulouse in France, and at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She completed her MFA at UW-Milwaukee and taught for some time at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and Carroll College as well as at UW-Waukesha before becoming part of the faculty in 2001.
Wurlitzer studied art at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, but delved into jewelry-making more thoroughly by attending the Gemological Institute of America’s (Los Angeles, CA) diamond and colored-stone identification and setting programs and the Jewelry Institute’s (Providence, RI) advanced model-making program. She taught at Carroll College from 1996-2001, at the Brookfield Craft Center in CT in the 1980’s, and at UW-Waukesha in spring of 2002.
UW-Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses. For information about programs, admission, or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at (262) 521-5200 or visit the Web at waukesha.uwc.edu.
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