East Lansing, MI – In advance of the opening of the new Zaha Hadid-designed museum in fall 2012, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University will present “The Broad Without Walls,” a series of eight urban interventions and public art installations in downtown East Lansing during the last two weeks of April.
The exhibitions open on April 28 and run through May 12. The museum issued an open call to Michigan-based artists to submit proposals for the project in February. The eight works to be presented were selected from 38 submissions by a jury composed of Alison Gass, curator of contemporary art,; Michael Rush, director,; Jefferson Kielwagen, guest curator and graduate student in the School of Art and Art History at MSU; and Laura Cloud, associate professor in the School of Art and Art History at MSU.
"This exhibition offers an expanded notion of where contemporary art can thrive, and will challenge viewers to consider the way both art and place can be shifted through surprising installations in public spaces," said Rush. “While the Broad Art Museum is primarily dedicated to showing the works of international contemporary artists, this project marks the beginning of a long term commitment to fostering dialogue between the local and global communities.”
Among the projects to be included in “The Broad Without Walls” are:
- Seth Ellis will upend the traditional understanding of spaces around the city with a fictional urban tour at multiple locations around East Lansing. He will create a fantastical narrative of place, creating stories about selected locations and inviting visitors to investigate the way history is built upon both truths and untruths. Ellis is based in Ypsilanti, Mich., holds an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and has recently exhibited in New York and the Canary Islands.
- Mandy Cano Villalobos will alter a common gathering spot by staging a meditative and powerful performance in which she systematically sews over photographic portraits of victims from war-torn South American countries (beginning at 12 p.m. April 28 in front of the MSU Credit Union branch at 523 E. Grand River Ave.). Villalobos is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., holds an MFA from George Washington University and has recently exhibited in Chicago and Nashville, Tenn.
- Kate Lewis will engage the community to create a collaborative mural built of small, handmade ceramic at (SCENE) Metrospace, 110 Charles St. Lewis will place these small forms in a pile on the ground beside a bare wall, and people who encounter the work will be invited to adhere a single object or many to the wall, in any location they choose. The result of the project will be a collaged constellation of these miniature sculptures, indexing the many visitors and passersby who were transformed from viewer to artistic collaborator. Lewis graduated from MSU’s Honors College with a bachelor's degree in English and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art, specializing in ceramics and sculpture, and has a ceramics studio in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Other artists who will take part in “The Broad Without Walls” include:
- Deborah Wheeler is an East Lansing-based M.F.A. candidate at MSU who has exhibited in Windsor, Ontario, Chicago, and Los Angeles. (Location: Drinking fountain inside the Kresge Art Center on the MSU campus.)
- Maureen Nollette is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., holds an M.F.A. from Queens College of the City University of New York and has recently exhibited in Detroit, Atlanta, and New York. (Location: Lobby of East Lansing Marriott University Place, 300 M.A.C.)
- Margaret Parker is based in Ann Arbor, Mich. and recently exhibited in the Grand Rapids ArtPrize show, the Windsor Biennial and galleries throughout Michigan. (Location: Alley behind the MSU Credit Union, 523 E. Grand River Ave.)
- Peter Lusch is a Lansing-based M.F.A. candidate at MSU with exhibitions around Michigan (Location: Kresge Art Center, MSU campus)
- Philip Brun Del Re is based in Kalamazoo, Mich. and has exhibited in Detroit and New York. (Location: Alley behind Ned’s Bookstore, 135 E. Grand River Ave.)
For more information, visit http://broadmuseum.msu.edu/.