April 13, 2004

French-Born Artist Presents Slide Lecture At Boise State

click images above to see full size view The Boise State University art department will sponsor a talk by artist Jehanne-Marie Gavarini at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, in Room 101 of the Multi-Purpose Building. In addition to her talk, Gavarini will meet with art students for studio critiques. Born and raised in France, Gavarini has exhibited her work in solo and group shows nationally and internationally, including venues such as the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts; Art Concept International Art Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia; San Francisco Art Commission Gallery; Urban Multimedia Arts Festival in Belfort, France; the Centre de recherche d’échange et de diffusion pour l’art contemporain in Ivry-sur-Seine, France; as well as Gallery 128 in New York. She is the recipient of several awards including the Bronx Council on the Arts in New York, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Centre de recherche d’échange et de diffusion pour l’art contemporain in Ivry-sur-Seine. In the last 10 years, Gavarini’s sculptures and installations have dealt with gender, as well as representations and constructions of fantasies and sexuality. Her work conveys the message that, although humanity is spreading its virtual wings and traveling in cyberspace, our bodies are still sometimes painfully grounded in material reality. Her work combines the presence and solidity of sculptural objects with the characteristic absence and weightlessness of post-minimal works of art. Gavarini’s objects are often grounded in the visual language of the mechanical age; however, the juxtaposition of hard elements such as concrete, metal and hardware with soft materials such as fabric, white bread and rubber evokes the construction of robots and bio-engineered bodies. Gavarini holds a master of fine arts from the University of California-Davis, and a bachelor of arts from the University of California-Berkeley. She currently lives in Boston and is an associate professor/foundation coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. For more information, please contact Tudor Mitroi, Boise State art department, at (208) 426-1087 or tudormitroi@boisestate.edu. -30- Contact Tudor Mitroi Art department 208 426-1087 Media Contact Kathleen Craven communications and marketing (208) 426-3275