A Rockford art gallery’s new exhibition is in full motion this holiday season.
The Kortman Gallery's “Balance: the Art of the Mobile” exhibit features pieces by eight mixed-media artists. Doc Slafkosky, director of the gallery located in the J.R. Kortman Center for Design, said he met two out-of-state artists at a trade show in New York one year and he wanted them to do something at the gallery.
“Joel Hotchkiss from Massachusetts did a very large-scale mobile that's in the Children's Hospital in Massachusetts,” Slafkosky explained. “And Matt Richards, who also does large scale works, he's from Portland, Oregon.”
Local artists were also invited to take part in the "moving" display. They are Lynn Fischer, Molly Carter, John Deill, John Verl McNamara, Jeremy Klonicki and R. Scott Long.
“The interesting one to work with was Lynn Fischer because she is a ceramic artist. She goes ‘I don't do this. I make ceramics.’ We said, ‘Lynn, we think you can do it,’” Slafkosky shared. “And she came up with these really charming mobiles that are like a little sun face and out from the nose hangs a little ceramic birds and flowers.”
The display features other materials like wood, fabric and concrete. These elements are not usually found in this type of art.
The show is free and will run through January but Slafkosky said most people who make purchases may want them by Christmas and this could affect the number of things left for display.
- Yvonne Boose is a 2020 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
