Art Department to Feature Show by Seattle Artist Ryna Frankel at McEachern Art Center

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Close Enough

MACON – Mercer University’s McEachern Art Center will present a new show, Close Enough, composed of works by Seattle artist Ryna Frankel, from June 21-Aug. 23.

“Ryna works with soft sculpture, collage, drawing and video to create images and objects about place, belonging and longing. She has a light look to her work, and a deliberately cute, disarming aesthetic. The casualness of her work is great, and is the result of a lot of thought and energy,” said Ben Dunn, director of the McEachern Art Center. “This exhibit, Close Enough, speaks to creating a sense of home through care.”

The opening reception will be held June 21 at 6 p.m. at the center, located at 332 Second Street in downtown Macon, and the gallery will be open during the summer on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 4-8 p.m.

The closing reception, featuring an artist talk by Frankel, will take place Aug. 23 at 5 p.m. Refreshments will be served, and a collection of small sculptural works from the exhibition will be given away to attendees.

“Potted plants remind me of home. A small plant in a clay pot is a modest housewarming gift that breathes life into living spaces. The care given to plants creates a home in what would otherwise be just a place you live. When we leave our families and our childhood homes, we are searching for the comfort we had in those places, with those people. Place is important, but so too are things that populate spaces. Plants especially so because they require our care, our time, our consideration, our attention. This is a strange way to create a home. We must rip those plants up from their own home in the earth to bring them inside our spaces,” said Frankel.

“In Close Enough, I continuously attempt to approximate home, care and comfort by carefully creating plants through drawing and sculpture. These plants will never die because they were never alive in a biological sense. Can they still lend some comfort to those looking to create a home for themselves? Can the care I have extended to these things, in the process of creating, translate into simulacra of caring and tenderness to those who look at them?”

The McEachern Art Center, home to one of the Art Department’s two galleries and its student studios, opened Jan. 31 at its historic downtown Macon location, which features a completely renovated gallery space at street level with studios and classroom space on the second floor.