The Grant Wood Art Colony celebrates the life and legacy of Iowa’s most famous artist, Grant Wood. After painting one of the most recognizable images in the world, American Gothic, Wood joined the University of Iowa faculty. Each year, the Colony provides three Fellowships in Painting & Drawing, Printmaking , and Interdisciplinary Performance. Fellows teach courses, engage Iowans, and pursue their artistic endeavors. The Colony also hosts a biennial symposium and provides outreach to perpetuate Wood’s legacy as an artist and advocate of contemporary art.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020, 8:00pm
Grant Wood Fellow Margarita Blush will walk us through her recent work in her studio. Blush works in the field of devised visual theatre as a director, performer, and teacher. As an artist, she thrives through the creation of new and original work. Her work blends live acting, puppetry, movement, unique design, and live music to produce imaginative, aesthetically captivating, thought-provoking, and deeply meaningful theatre experiences for the audience. Her work challenges notions of...
Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 8:00pm
During our studio visit with Grant Wood Fellow Elena Smyrniotis, we’ll tour the artist’s studio and discuss her current work and practice. As an artist, Smyrniotis is interested in the exploration of real and fictional islands, their effect on our imagination, and their place in the utopian mentality. Islands are imbued with powerful myths; they combine materiality and metaphor and offer spaces that appear at once open and closed, fixed and fluid, defenseless and resilient, seductive and...
Tuesday, December 8, 2020, 8:00pm
Join us for a studio visit with Grant Wood Fellow Johnathan Payne to see some of his current work and hear about his practice. Payne’s most recent body of work is a rigorous engagement of collage, embroidery, and color painting processes. Using shredded paper, he weaves and adheres the material onto itself to construct intricately gridded substrates that are primed and painted several times over. Unconventional and idiosyncratic in nature, Payne’s works defy categorical definition....
