Inside/Outside: Amy Cropper + Stuart Morris
Inverse
Opening reception: Sunday, June 12, 3–5 pm
Artist-led Tour & Picnic: Wednesday, August 10, beginning at 5:30 pm
Amy Cropper and Stuart Morris share an interest in the relationship between art and culture and in work that removes distinctions between art and life. Inverse, their collaboration at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, marks their first opportunity to explore these ideas together. Cropper and Morris create sculptures designed to engage viewers in a dialogue with the piece and its environment. They often work with natural materials and processes, and have also explored the tension between natural and manmade materials in their solo work. Inverse asks viewers to re-examine the boundaries we erect between art and nature by altering and recontextualizing the natural objects that coexist with the sculptures at Lynden. The artists call attention to the beauty and sculptural significance of the natural objects, of trees and rocks, by modifying them —using color, for example—or moving them to bring them into conversation with the sculptures. Cropper and Morris also deploy the transformative power of the gallery space to re-cast natural objects as works of art: placed in the pristine gallery, the sculptural qualities of these unaltered forms will be heightened. Ultimately, Cropper and Morris make the familiar unfamiliar, inviting us to think differently about what we see.
About the Artists
Amy Cropper is an associate professor of art at Carroll University where she teaches sculpture, drawing, and the senior capstone. Cropper received her MFA from the University of Iowa in Intermedia Arts in 1993. She did her undergraduate work at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, graduating with a degree in art and English in 1985. Cropper shows her work regionally and nationally and has recently completed two commissions.
Stuart Morris makes public artwork about places. His ideas develop by working with the people that know these places well. He has used this approach to create public art projects in the United States and Europe. Stuart received an MFA from the University of Iowa while on a fellowship, and currently teaches art and design at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.