The Newman University Steckline Gallery will present “Those Were the Days” by printmaker Rachel Epp Buller as the fifth show of its 2011-2012 season. The exhibit, which begins with a Final Friday reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27, will be on display through Feb. 17. Both the reception and admission to the gallery are free and open to the public.
An “Art for Lunch” presentation by Buller will be held Tuesday, Jan. 31 from noon to 1 p.m. in the gallery. A light lunch will be served on a first-come, first-served basis. Guests may also bring their lunch. This event is also free and reservations are not required.
Buller is a printmaker whose recent artwork and scholarship speak to what she calls the intersection of her roles as artist, mother, feminist, and art historian. She earned a doctorate from the University of Kansas in 2004, and now teaches in the Art Department at Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. Buller is also the regional coordinator of The Feminist Art Project. She has lectured and published widely on issues of maternity in contemporary art, and has exhibited her prints across the country and abroad. Her book, Reconciling Art and Mothering, is due out from Ashgate Publishing later this year. Another work, Mennonite Mothering, will appear from Demeter Press in 2013.
“I cast a critical gaze on constructions of family and mothering,” Buller said. “Many of my prints and handmade books explore concepts of shared knowledge and shifting maternal identity. Family histories and communal stories are disseminated between generations and within cultures, while practical skills are often taught from parent to child. In this series of monoprints and mixed media work, I meld photographic and textual references to family history, traditions of handicraft that were often the purview of women, such as sewing and cut-paper work known as Scherenschnitte, and artifacts of Mennonite cultural heritage and migration.”
The Steckline Gallery is located inside the De Mattias Fine Arts Center on the Newman campus, 3100 McCormick. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by appointment. For more information, call 316-942-4291, ext. 2199.
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