“Clifton Meador: Studio of Exhaustion" at St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery -- through March 4.
Exhibit: Through Friday, March 4
Q&A and Reception: Friday, February 18, 5 – 7 p.m.
St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery, Galvin Fine Arts Center, 2101 Gaines Street, Davenport IA
A number of specific art forms blend in a new exhibition at St. Ambrose University as the Catich Gallery, through March 4, houses the works of Clifton Meador: Studio of Exhaustion, its creator a noted artist who combines writing, photography, printmaking, and design to make books that explore how the narratives of culture, history, and place are the basis for identity.
Meador, who served as Chair of the Department of Art at Appalachian State University for five years, is a professor in the Graphic Design and Graphic Communications Management programs at the school, and his work is in many international collections including the Library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Yale Art of the Book collection. His works have been supported by grants from the Rubin Foundation, the NEA, the Soros Foundation for Open Society, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Meador was twice awarded a NYFA fellowship in Printmaking/Artist’s Books, was a Fulbright Scholar to the Republic of Georgia, and was the 2013 recipient of the MCBA Book Prize. He led the MFA in Book and Paper program in the Interdisciplinary Arts Department at Columbia College Chicago, collaboratively founded an experimental graduate program at SUNY New Paltz – the Visual Research Laboratory – and was director of Nexus Press in the 1980s. Before joining the academy, Meador worked as a pressman at several commercial, literary, and small press production facilities, including Open Studio, Nexus Press (where he was the director for four years), and J. B. Richards.
The artist's Studio of Exhaustion project is named for the Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service, a building in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, which is a complex of buildings in the northeastern corner of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Qianlong Emperor, having reigned for many years, began building a retirement retreat in anticipation of his abdication, and vowed that “if the Heavens blessed him to be on the throne for 60 years,” he would retire out of respect so as not to outreign his beloved grandfather Kang’xi, China’s longest-reigning emperor. Qianlong, however, never retired, and wound up never inhabiting his modest retirement hall.
A 5 p.m. Q&A and reception for Clifton Meador: Studio of Exhaustion will be held on February 18 in the Catich Gallery located in St. Ambrose's Galvin Fine Arts Center, and the exhibit itself will be on display through March 4. While the venue's regular hours are Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the public can currently visit the gallery by appointment only. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (563)333-6444 and visiting SAU.edu/catich.
