Community Calendar

The Freeport Art Museum presents "Into the Mystic," works by James Mahu, Aug. 18-Oct. 14.

James Mahu has cemented himself as a master of modern myth-making with his WingMakers mythos, which has been translated into numerous languages and captivated audiences worldwide with its otherworldly vision. But Mahu's latest undertaking is his most ambitious yet: the Movement of Consciousness and Interconnectedness. This quest aims to explore the boundaries of human awareness and challenge our understanding of existence itself.

As a transmedia artist-philosopher, Mahu skillfully weaves together music, poetry, philosophy, and visual art to create a tapestry of thought-provoking ideas. At the core of his work is the enigmatic concept of the Sovereign Integral, a notion that has eluded both science and spirituality.

Into the Mystic, an exhibition of Mahu's latest works, will showcase his original paintings, music, and writings, all seamlessly integrated to create an immersive experience that will leave visitors pondering the mysteries within themselves.

FM 101 ProFM™ Credential Program
The FM profession is evolving as it adapts to new technologies, globalization, and significant retirement gaps. ProFM is the global standard for today’s facility professionals.
$1,800.00

Date: 9/27 – 12/6 (Every Wednesday except there is no class on 11/22)
Time: 6 – 8:30 p.m. (CT)
Instructors: James Myers & Alana Dunoff
Location: Online via Zoom

Visit our facility management webpage for more information: https://cpelearn.niu.edu/facility-management/

Chat GPT, DALL-E and other generative AI technologies are changing the face of human creativity and impacting professions in marketing, art and literature. However, polarizing arguments about these new technologies’ ability to either save or doom humanity are at least as old as Plato – who recorded a debate about that new fantastic and disruptive technology that was called writing more than 2,000 years ago.

Join two experts in new and emerging technologies to learn more about the practical and ethical implications of artificial intelligence on creativity and communication. They’ll help us understand how a computer with no brain can “see,” “learn” and “create” art, how this technology reproduces human biases, and some of the short- and long-term effects of generative AI on human audiences. They’ll also provide historical context to help us better understand recent technology as yet another iteration in a long line of technical innovations that have contributed to and helped us better understand what we mean by “creative.”

Speakers:

David J. Gunkel, Ph.D., NIU Professor of Media Studies and Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor
Andy Jeon, PhD, NIU Assistant Professor of Marketing

Northern Illinois University STEM Cafés are part of NIU STEAM and are designed to increase public awareness of the critical role that STEM fields play in our everyday lives. They are offered in partnership with the NIU Alumni Association and made possible with support from Bayer Fund.

Every Thursday, September 14 to October 5

9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Recently, there has been a growing international enthusiasm for the repatriation of cultural objects to their “rightful origin.” However, much of the current clamor is rooted in [objects to their ‘rightful place of origin’] ethical and patriotic concerns that may not be held in their country of origin. This right-headed, “Western concern has often led to wrong-headed, misguided initiatives. The processes involved in a “return” being surprisingly complicated. The lecturer was involved in an agonizing 20-year effort to right such a cultural wrong through the return of a rare, stolen, 11th century Burmese Buddha image. A variety of other examples will be discussed.

Convener: Richard Cooler was a professor in the School of Art (1970-2002) and the founding Director of the Center for Burmese Studies (1986-2002).

All sessions meet in HSC Illinois Room.

Every Tuesday, September 12 to October 31

9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

This lecture series will pick up where the previous one left off, describing the contributions of · Michelangelo as a major figure of both the High and late Renaissance in Italy. It will then proceed to major developments in the art and literature of Rome, Venice and other Italian cities throughout the sixteenth century, including Giorgione, Titian, Cellini, Veronese, Ariosto, Stampa, Tasso, and the literary phenomenon of Petrarchism. The lectures conclude with certain developments of the early seventeenth century, especially the scientific revolution of Galileo whose view of the universe stands in marked contrast to the medieval notions of Dante, the subject of the first lecture series.

Convener: Christopher Nissen received his Ph. D. in Italian from the University of California at Berkeley, then taught Italian language and literature at NIU from 1988 to 2019. He is the author of numerous studies of Italian literature.

All sessions meet in HSC Illinois Room.

The Freeport Art Museum presents "Into the Mystic," works by James Mahu, Aug. 18-Oct. 14.

James Mahu has cemented himself as a master of modern myth-making with his WingMakers mythos, which has been translated into numerous languages and captivated audiences worldwide with its otherworldly vision. But Mahu's latest undertaking is his most ambitious yet: the Movement of Consciousness and Interconnectedness. This quest aims to explore the boundaries of human awareness and challenge our understanding of existence itself.

As a transmedia artist-philosopher, Mahu skillfully weaves together music, poetry, philosophy, and visual art to create a tapestry of thought-provoking ideas. At the core of his work is the enigmatic concept of the Sovereign Integral, a notion that has eluded both science and spirituality.

Into the Mystic, an exhibition of Mahu's latest works, will showcase his original paintings, music, and writings, all seamlessly integrated to create an immersive experience that will leave visitors pondering the mysteries within themselves.

The Rockford Art Museum presents the exhibition "Constant Pressure," a visual exploration of identity, activism, and collaboration with Fatherless and Friends, June 9-Nov. 12.

Fatherless Print Posse is a Rockford, Illinois based artistic collaboration between Javier Jimenez, Greg Lang, David Menard, Ben Rider (U.K.). Since 2010 Fatherless has been known for a variety of large-scale graphics that use appropriated and manipulated imagery to explore socially conscious ideas through printmaking, painting, collage and installation. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in many public and private collections.

Fatherless has consistently pushed forward with a counter-intuitive approach to not just screen printing, but artist collaboration as well. Members of Fatherless operate as a unit collaborating freely with each other’s ideas and imagery. This process does not reveal any individual artist or “father” but rather an amalgam of the whole. Each piece is a one off monoprint that will never be repeated. The collective power of the individuals allows for a wide range of ambitious projects that satirizes what they see as “our consumer driven, media saturated, disposable culture.”

The Rockford Art Museum presents the exhibit "Ken Hoffman: 10 More And Bigger" May 19- Oct. 15.

As an Illinois artist for more than 50 years, Hoffman is perhaps best known for his humorous and colorfully painted and collaged portraits of humanlike animals. But upon closer inspection, some of the animal figures begin to break away from whimsy and draw us into more psychological narratives ranging from socio-political topics to cultural and interpersonal relationships. In many instances, both in his small and large-scale animal figures and his expressive murals, Ken may also use words, collage and found objects that draw the viewer in for a closer look.

The tie that binds his many decades of production together, whether it be his animal figures or other subjects, is the power and energy created by his application of paint, line and color. With such a long history of an incredibly productive creative process, it is well deserved that Hoffman has been hailed as one of the Midwest’s premier expressionist painters.

The exhibition is sponsored by Amy Towne and Scott Snyder. Snyder, a former curator at RAM and former student of Ken Hoffman, is the guest curator of the exhibition.

The Next Picture Show presents The Farms & Barn Show — one of the fine arts center’s most popular annual exhibits. The exhibit runs from September 8 through October 19.

This show features work that explores our rich farm region’s culture by highlighting the many old buildings, wide-open pastures, farm equipment, livestock, creeks, and streams that can be recorded in individual artwork styles.

This is an all-media exhibition of both 2-D and 3-D original work.

Long Time No See (Exhibit A) by Esau McGhee
On Display: September 11th-October 20th
Gallery Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 12-2:30pm, or by appointment anorris@rockford.edu

Long Time No See (Exhibit A) is a 10-year retrospective exhibition that explores McGhee’s career in the decade following the completion of his MFA at Northwestern University. Esau McGhee (b. 1975, Philadelphia, PA) has held solo exhibitions such as Graceful Exit (Exhibit B), Boundary Space (Chicago, IL), “Untitled” (How Does It Feel?”) Goldfinch Gallery (Chicago, IL), Economy of Movement, Harper College (Palatine, IL) and 80 Block from Tiffany’s, Elastic Arts (Chicago, IL). Select group exhibitions include Bo Jackson, Cleaner Gallery (Chicago, IL), Silos, Art League Houston (Houston, TX), On the Road, Jenkins Johnson Projects (Brooklyn, NY) and Superimposed, Eastside International/ESXLA (Los Angeles, CA). McGhee lives and works in Chicago, IL.

Concurrently, an exhibition of new work titled Graceful Exit (Exhibit B) runs at Boundary, Chicago, IL.

Much of Esau McGhee’s research and artistic practice concentrates on a critique of image construction through strategies of image making. Beginning with his photographic investigation of urban space in his native Philadelphia he has increasingly honed in on the topics of class and race construction. His most recent work has shifted from conventional strategies of representation, be it the use of the camera lens or traditional collage, to sculptural practice and large-scale installation of grid based printed works. In both cases he has deployed the found object as a strategy to further investigate the constructed image, focusing on the “image” of urban racial construction and the site of its consumption.