Main Art Gallery, Zoellner Arts Center, PA, USA
March 19 – July 10, 2011
Main Art Gallery, Zoellner Arts Center

The converging fields between abstract and concrete are things and places around us that interface with compositional, color-related, textural or conceptual issues. The general is related to the specific and visa versa.

“Open Space”, an artist group comprised of Christine Istad, Hennie Ann Isdahl, Mona K. Lalim and Lisa Pacini create in different ways with a range of active relationships between detail and wholeness, function and surface. History and place become both archival and opportunistic. The group sets the stage for the exploration of the artist’s differing site-specific identities. Individual artists are not just from one place, but they carry their own experience and origins. In this sense, the “Open Space” group also is a medium for the manifestation and investigation of the combined space between Istad, Isdahl, Lalim and Pacini. In their new project, the interplay of colors creates the platform for further reflection on individual identity. “Open Space” is a dynamic workspace between the four artists, where the focus is the understanding of space as an ambivalent and mobile magnitude in a culturally-specific content.

The four artists are well established on the Norwegian contemporary art scene and are acknowledged with numbers of awards, grants and commissions. The exhibition, curated by Professor Ricardo Viera, Director/Curator, LUAG, has been made possible, thanks to generous support by NBK, Norwegian Visual Artists Association and The American Scandinavian Foundation.

Lehigh University Art Galleries/Museum Operation (LUAG) maintains and develops the university’s world-class teaching collection of over 11,000 objects, including an extensive selection of outdoor sculpture on three campuses. As part of its mission to inspire, promote and develop visual literacy and cultural understanding, LUAG operations as a visual laboratory, creating various settings for experimental learning where students and faculty have direct experiences with works of art. In addition, LUAG presents approximately 20 exhibitions per year in eight campus galleries, and acts as an in-situ alternative classroom for museum studies. www.luag.org

For more information: www.christine-istad.no - www.lisapacini.org - www.isdahl.info - www.lalim.no

Support: The American Scandinavian Foundation and NBK – Norwegian Visual Artists Association