Western Gallery Hosting International Sculpture Exhibit, 'How Space Turns,' through May 12

The Western Gallery at Western Washington University is hosting an international sculpture exhibit, “How Space Turns,” through May 12.

The Western Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Building and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, on Wednesdays until 8 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m.; the exhibition is free and open to the public.

“How Space Turns” brings together six artists from three continents: Ernesto Neto from Brazil; Tomás Saraceno from Argentina; Rintaro Hara and Ryuji Nakamura  from Japan; and Ragna Róbertsdóttir and Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, who is also the curator of the show, from Iceland. The origins of the exhibit began in 2008 when Jónsdóttir did a solo exhibition at the Reykjavik Art Museum.

Hafþór Yngvason, the current director of the Western Gallery but at that time the director of the Reykjavík Art Museum, went to Jónsdóttir’s studio to plan the exhibition. Jónsdóttir told Yngvason about several international artists with whom she felt kinship and Yngvason subsequently asked her to curate a group exhibition where these artists would be brought together.

The outcome was the exhibition “Synthesis,” which opened in 2014 at the Reykjavik Art Museum. Yngvason’s colleague and collaborator on several projects, Eva Shmidt, came to Iceland to see the exhibition and liked it so much that she asked to bring it to the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Siegen, Germany. The exhibition opened there in 2015 under the title “Wie Raum Wird.” Schmidt made one change to the exhibition, which was to join Jónsdóttir’s 2008 installation with the Synthesis exhibition, which is how it appears in the Western Gallery.

Two artists who were in the Reykavik and Siegen versions of the exhibitions are not included in the Western Gallery exhibit: Mona Hatoum, because her work had to be returned to the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, Norway; and Monika Grzmala, who was busy with another installation.

For more information please visit the Western Gallery’s website westerngallery.wwu.edu, or contact Chris Casquilho, Fine and Performing Arts manager of Marketing and Special Events at Western, at (360) 650-2829 or chris.casquilho@wwu.edu.

Image: "Vida Que Esparrama" by Ernesto Neto; photo by Rafaela Schwartz courtesy of the Silfurberg Art Fund.