Mark Twain was part of a worldwide movement against the use of slave labor to harvest wild rubber in the Belgian Congo. He was protesting King Leopold of Belgium's treatment of the native peoples of Africa that accounted for an estimated five million to eight million deaths.
Give an artist tremendous talent in draftsmanship, shading, and painting but omit the passion, purpose, and message, and you have Joyce Treiman. A critic for the Los Angeles Times once described her as "an artist's artist," and that's how I feel about the show of Treiman's work at the Augustana College Centennial Hall Art Gallery.
If your parents know who Big Brother & The Holding Company, Jeff Beck Group, Sly & The Family Stone, Steppenwolf, and Jefferson Airplane are, don't let them kid you: They probably did drugs, and they most likely inhaled, unless it was a pill.
The two artists whose work is currently on display at the MidCoast Fine Arts Gallery seem to be moving toward an expression that will be fully realized soon. Tom Lytle has three paintings and 15 three-dimensional works in this show, while Kristi DeMarr has contributed 17 paintings.
Two artists presently showing at Quad City Arts take familiar media and put their distinctive stamps on them. Lisa L. Mahar's Putting the "Fun" Back into Functional showcases 30 furniture sculptures, while Sara Toton's Found Objects features 36 photographic collages.
The Bi-State Biennial Art Exhibition now on display at the Davenport Museum of Art has grown significantly since its 1999 incarnation, with 73 artists compared to 52 two years ago. The artists come from nearly 40 communities throughout Iowa and Illinois, and the states are evenly represented, with 41 works from Iowa and 39 from Illinois.
If you haven't seen Quad City International Airport in the past six months, you will be surprised. That's already been the case for many travelers and residents. "A lot of people walking through are pretty shocked that we have something this nice," said Bruce Carter, director of aviation for the airport.
Although Colleen Curry is working in a more novel medium than Jacki Olson and Dick Oberg, it is Curry whose art makes its impact beyond the materials in the Quad City ArtsCenter's current show. Curry is a three-dimensional artist working in quilted fabrics with armature frames to provide the structure for her freestanding pieces, while Olson and Oberg are graphic artists working together with photographs and the computer program Photoshop.
The works of Ralph Iaccarino and Jay Stratton have such a professional finish that they allow the viewer to concentrate totally on their shapes, form, and feelings. It really is a joy to observe and walk from piece to piece in their two-person show at the MidCoast Fine Arts Gallery in LeClaire's Iowa Welcome Center, because there isn't a weak link among them.
The Japanese block prints in the Davenport Museum of Art's wonderful current exhibit took me back to the late '60s and early '70s, when I almost got kicked out of art school for suggesting that comic books were art.

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