Cedar Rapids Museum of Art opening landscape, environmental exhibition

While conversations about climate and the environment are nothing new, a collection of responses from Iowa artists is new, opening Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Titled “Land/Scape: Climate, the Environment, and Beyond,” a call for Iowa artists went out last fall, inviting them to submit up to three works created within the past three years, dealing “in some way with the land,” said Julia Jessen, the museum’s curator of collections and exhibitions, who served as the jurist for the show.

She was amazed by the response, receiving 374 submissions from 150 artists. From there, she chose 59 works from 59 artists, which fills the three back galleries on the museum’s first floor.

“I wasn't sure what to expect with a call like this,” Jessen said. “I wasn't sure what the response would be, and how many submissions that we would get. I was really pleasantly surprised that so many people were interested and invested in this kind of a theme. And at the huge variety of how they interpreted this theme, and the different things that each artist is saying. I think they're all saying something a little bit different in their work, so that was really exciting and surprising for me.”

Then came the hard part.

Narrowing the numbers “was something that I agonized over, because there were so many wonderful submissions,” she said, “and many pieces I would have loved to include, but just didn't have the space for as well, because there were so many great submissions.

“I think that's just the nature of a call like this. There's always going to be more wonderful work that you'd love to include, and you just don't have the space.”

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Variety of views

It’s no surprise that many of the artists live and work in the Corridor, but others come from a bit farther afield, including Ames, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fairfield, West Branch, Monticello, Dixon, Randall, Stone City, Central City, Mingo and Grinnell. Some of the names will be familiar — Priscilla Steele, John Paul Schafer, Mel Andringa and Fred Easker — but others are new to the Cedar Rapids museum, and to Jessen, who joined the staff in July.

“That was another great thing about doing this exhibition — getting to know more of these Iowa artists, getting to see more of their work, and hearing more from them to get these descriptions about how they view their art,” Jessen said.

It also piqued her interest in seeing more from them, so it’s a reciprocal benefit — one that will benefit the viewers, as well.

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The works are as varied as the artists. They range from traditional media like oil, watercolor and acrylic to found-art collage, photography, mixed media, installation and sculpture. Some are hyper realistic, some are impressionistic and others are abstract, almost surreal pieces, Jessen noted.

Jennifer Bates, an assistant professor of fine arts at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, has created a site-specific installation based on the Cedar River, and how it spread during the 2008 flood.

“She's showing that original imprint of the river, and then how it pushes out and expands over that 500-year flood plain,” Jessen said, adding that the large-scale work fills one of the smaller gallery walls, and incorporates more than 3,000 plastic drinking straws.

Jeremy Chen, from the Grinnell College faculty, will be “performing” his sculpture, titled “Row,” at 6 p.m. Thursday night, Feb. 8, during the exhibition’s free opening reception.

“We’re excited about that,” Jessen said. “His piece sort of looks almost like a rowboat, but it's made of these jars that have topsoil in them as well as seeds. He actually physically sits on top of the piece. He has oars and he rows them, and so I think it'll be really interesting.”

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Making connections

Other exhibiting artists are expected to be at the reception, which also celebrates the second-floor exhibition, “Ravenous: Food in Art,” dovetailing nicely with the “Land/Scape” collection.

“There's a connection there with ‘Ravenous,’ in thinking about food, and where our food comes from; the environments that food is created in; and the cost of the environment to create some of the foods that we consume. Some artists in ‘Land/Scape’ are thinking about that a bit, as well, in their work,” Jessen said, “in their pieces that are dealing with and thinking about the environment, but also food and food production and consumption.

“I think (’Land/Scape’) also obviously connects with Grant Wood and Marvin Cone, as far as the ideas of landscape. Both of them did a lot of landscapes. And I think some of the artists — not all of them, but some of them — are definitely thinking about that kind of Regionalist landscape history, and in some ways responding to that, whether it's an homage or in honor of that landscape, or whether it's kind of pushing against that idea of the landscape and showing something different than what they were doing in their time. And I think for some of these artists, they will look at those landscapes and see the changes that have occurred to what they're seeing now in the environment around them. They're interested in highlighting those changes, as well.”

Jessen embraces the idea of art incorporating “broader social issues as well, bringing those into the artwork, thinking about how artwork illuminates these things, shines a light on different things, highlights problems, challenges, changes, and in some ways, can be a call to action.

“I think that's really interesting, and I was really excited to be able to see what the artists did here.”

She’s excited to hear what viewers see, too.

“For one, I hope they get a sense of just the immense talent that we have in this state that's pouring out of these artists. ... And I hope, too, that they really spend some time with these works. Take the time to understand where these artists are coming from and what aspects of the land, the environment, the climate they're thinking about in their work.

“And I hope it might inspire people to think a little more about these topics or a little more thoughtfully about how they approach some of these different things in their own lives. I think it will spark a lot of different ideas, and potentially, it might help people to think about and process some of their own feelings,” she said.

“Some of these artists have dealt with the derecho in their work, and I know this area's still recovering from that, (so) it might also be helpful for (viewers) to see artworks that are thinking about and dealing with that topic.

“There's a lot of things going on in the exhibition. I hope they just walk away thinking about something, perhaps wanting to create further action related to what they've seen in the exhibition.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com