Jessica Stockholder is widely considered one of the most innovative artists working today. Her work not only connects the dots; it links colors, forms, lines, and spaces into always surprising relationships.

An exhibition of her work – “Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall” – will be on display at UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum Feb. 13 – May 8.

Stockholder has been largely known for her site-specific installations in this country and abroad. Throughout her career, however, she has balanced production of these monumental, multi-dimensional, and theatrical endeavors with self-contained works that reflect a more intimate, human scale.

In 1988, Stockholder created “Kissing the Wall” – a “piece of furniture with paint wrapped around it and a light that was pointing at the wall” – initiating the smaller assembled works that are featured in this exhibition.

“Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall” includes twenty-two of her small- and medium-sized sculptures. She assembles commonplace found objects and raw materials – culled from the home and Home Depot – to invite magic and possibility into items we normally perceive as having little aesthetic value. The resulting work is optimistic, energetic, fun, and as formally and intellectually rigorous as any today.

With a keen historical awareness, Stockholder has looked to sources as diverse as Matisse, Cezanne, the Cubists and Robert Rauschenberg, as well as Minimalism, Allen Kaprow’s 1960s “Happenings” and the post-minimal “scatter” art of Robert Smithson. Through her sharp conceptual lenses, Stockholder synthesizes these influences to produce highly original and intensely visual essays on the physical and perceptual experience of space.

Exhibition Events

• Artist’s Talk and Preview Reception – 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11. Stockholder’s talk will take place in the gallery, and refreshments will follow in the atrium. Free to the public.

• Weatherspoon Family Night – 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17. Family friendly art activities, musical performances by UNCG School of Music students, and gallery tours are planned. Free to the public.

• Teachers’ Workshop for K-12 educators –10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26. Tour the Jessica Stockholder exhibition, discuss ways to integrate contemporary art into the classroom, and work in the studio with sculptor and Guilford College art professor David Newton. Fee: $20 for WAM members, $25 for non-members.

• Assembly Required Workshop – (ages 5-7) 2-3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29; (ages 8-10) 10-11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 30. Assembling common household objects in fun and creative ways is just one way artist Jessica Stockholder makes art. Take a close look at the Jessica Stockholder exhibition before designing and constructing unique table-top sculptures. Fee: $10 for WAM members; $15 for non-members.

• Creative Drawing Workshop – (ages 11-13) 2-3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31. Working in the Jessica Stockholder exhibition, explore how color, composition, and context fit into developing a creative and imaginative drawing. Fee: $10 for WAM members; $15 for non-members.

• Gallery Talk led by Museum director Nancy Doll – 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31. Free to the public.

• Exhibition Tours led by docents – 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20 and March 13. Free to the public.

• New Art/New Music – 5-9 p.m. Thursday April 7. Weatherspoon Art Museum and the UNCG School of Music will present an evening of contemporary music. Free to the public.

• Family Day – 1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 16. Join us for an afternoon of art activities, gallery tours, music, and fun for all ages. Free to the public.

Up to date information on all exhibition-related events is available on the Museum’s web site. To register for any of the above workshops, call (336) 256-1448.

Support for the Exhibition

Co-organized by Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, and Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, “Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall” is the first exhibition to look at this side of Stockholder’s work in depth and throughout a 15-year period of production. This exhibition and its catalogue are generously sponsored by the Altria Group, Inc. Major support was provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Houston Endowment, Inc., The National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the North Carolina Arts Council.