Gallery News Page/Press Releases
JOSEPH SEIGENTHALER
 |
Durst Lambda Digital Photograph Luster laminate surface, mounted on ¼" masonite Artist proof, image generated from Animation Stills JSE 10 |
 |
Joseph Seigenthaler Busta Dream Durst Lambda Digital Photograph Luster laminate surface, mounted on 1/4" masonite Artist proof from animation stills 69 x 50 inches JSE 14 |
 |
Durst Lambda Digital Photograph Luster laminate surface, mounted on ¼" masonite Artist proof, image generated from Animation Stills JSE 9 |
 |
Durst Lambda Digital Photograph Luster laminate surface, mounted on ¼" masonite Artist proof, image generated from Animation Stills JSE 12 |
 |
Kweenee Durst Lambda Digital Photograph Luster laminate surface, mounted on ¼" masonite Artist proof, image generated from Animation Stills JSE 11 |
 |
Winston 2000-2003 Acrylic, hair, fabric, epoxy on fired stonewear 29 x 21 x 14 ½ inches JSE 13 . |
|
The simultaneously repulsive/beguiling mixed media figures of Joseph Seigenthaler didn’t just crawl out of some dark, murky, mysterious slime. They arrived by car, the CTA, they walked in city streets, they ate lunch in a neighborhood diner, their legs mended in local hospitals, they were entertained in the local movie theater. They were the man or woman who live just down the block. But it is, perhaps, the artist himself who is most studied in these fierce and unlikely recreations straight out of an Ivan Albright painting. Their fixed stares at first confront then transport the passing viewer, often into surrealistic realms of discovery and understanding. A transplant from the South, Seigenthaler has taken the resemblance of a latter-day Chicago imagist. His people studies are the quintessence of freak or sideshow subject matter. His transformational use of exaggeration and distortion creates a reality out of illusion and disillusion. "ALIVE!" they seem to shout while conveying to us a chilling association with all things improbably pre-historic or extra-terrestrial. What we fear and draw back from is often the source of our greatest fascination. The remarkable and transformational sculpture by Joe Seigenthaler touches us in ways which both surprise and delight. We love the ability to suspend our own disbelief, and we uncover a more base and unfamiliar self in the process. Born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1959, Joseph Seigenthaler currently resides in Chicago, Illinois, where he has exhibited his figurative sculpture for the past decade. He received the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1981 from the Memphis College of Art's painting department and afterwards began fabricating on a freelance basis life-size, realistic wax figures for various wax museums, primarily in Nashville and Sydney, Australia. The technical processes gained from this three-year period were to become influential in the development of his later explorations with the figures in clay. From 1984 to 1986 Seigenthaler attended the Appalachian Center for Arts and Crafts in Smithville, Tennessee, where he became exposed to the possibilities of the ceramic medium. In 1987 he was awarded a three year tuition scholarship from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where in 1990 he received the Master of Fine Arts degree. Seigenthaler has taught ceramics and sculpture at the University of Montana, Missoula and Harold Washington College in Chicago. More recently he has taught part-time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Virginia A. Groot Foundation awarded him their visual arts grant in sculpture in 1996, as well as a third place award in 1995. He was the recipient of a Regional Fellowship Award in sculpture from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1991 and a visual arts grant in sculpture from the Illinois Arts Council in 1990. Recent exhibitions from 1997-1998 include "The Nude in Clay" at Perimeter Gallery in Chicago; "Out of the Shadow of Ivan Albright, Twelve Contemporary Chicago Artists" at the State of Illinois Art Gallery/ Chicago; the Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition in New York and Chicago; and one-person shows at Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago. Seigenthaler was included in the 1994 exhibit "UnReal- Three Chicago Artists," curated by the SUNY Roland Gibson Gallery, State University of New York, Potsdam. He is currently scheduled for a solo exhibition in the Spring of 2000 at the Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu Hawaii, as well as numerous private collections nationwide.
|
JOSEPH SEIGENTHALER
Born 1959, Nashville, TN
Resides Chicago, IL
EDUCATION
1990 Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, MFA, Ceramics
1984-86 Appalachian Center for Arts and Crafts, Smithville, TN
1981 Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN, BFA, Painting
TEACHING POSITIONS
1999 Oxbow, Saugatuck, MI
1998 Oxbow, Saugatuck, MI
1997-98 Visiting Artist, School of the Art Institute, Ceramics Dep't., Chicago, IL
1993 Harold Washington College, Chicago, IL
1990 University of Montana, Missoula, MT
1988-90 Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
AWARDS
1996 Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, Chicago, IL, $25,000 Award
1995 Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, Chicago, IL, Recognition Award
1991 NEA Regional/ Arts Midwest Visual Arts Fellowship Award (Sculpture)
1990 Illinois Arts Council, Visual Art Grant (Sculpture)
Illinois Arts Council Special Assistance Grant for an Individual
EXHIBITIONS *Denotes one-person show
2000 Recent Works, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL*
Confrontational Clay: The Artist as Social Critic, National Touring
Exhibition, Curated by Judith Schwartz -NYU, and Exhibits USA
Carl Hammer 2000, Group Exhibition, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL
1999 Chicago International Art Exhibition, Navy Pier, Carl Hammer Gallery
Clay Becomes the Figure, Kennedy Art Museum, Athens, OH
55th Scripps Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
1998 The Nude in Clay, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL; New York, NY
1997 Influences, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL*
1997 Out of the Shadow of Ivan Albright, Twelve Contemporary Chicago Artists, State of Illinois Art Gallery, James Thompson Center, Chicago, IL
Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
1996 One Person Show, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL*
1995 Joseph Seigenthaler- New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL; Miami, FL
1994 (Un)Real: Three Chicago Artists, Roland Gibson Gallery, State University
of New York, Potsdam, NY
When Clay Speaks, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL*
Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL
1993 New Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Chicago, IL
1991 Faculty Exhibition, Gallery of Visual Arts, University of Montana, Missoula, MT
1990 Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL*
1989 Contemporary Ceramics, NIU Gallery, Chicago, IL
1988 The Whole World is Still Watching (20th Anniversary of the 1968
Democratic Convention), Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
New Faces, New Spaces, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
1987 Political Statements, NEA and Southern Arts Federation Touring Exhibition
1986 Political Statements, NEA and Southern Arts Federation Touring
Appalachian Center for Arts and Crafts, Smithville, TN*
CAREER RELATED EXPERIENCE
1999-present John G. Shedd Aquarium, Senior Fabrication Specialist, Department of Planning and Design
1999 Visiting Artist, University of Washington, Ceramics Dept.., Seattle, WA
1997 Visiting Artist, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ceramics Dept.., Chicago, IL
1993 Visiting Artist, Kishwaukee College, Sculpture Dept.., Malta, IL
1993-99 Freelance Sculptor for Museum Exhibits at Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL; Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL; Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL
1985-86 Studio Assistant Manager, Ceramics Dept., Appalachian Center for Arts
And Crafts1981-84 Freelance Sculptor for Exhibits at Australian Country Music Wax
Museum, Tamworth, N.S.W., Australia; The Country Music Wax Museum, Nashville, TN
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
State University of New York, Potsdam, NY
Don Christal, Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Nancy Church, Chicago, IL
Dr. Mark Connolly, Chicago, IL
Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Candace Groot, Evanston, IL
Karen Johnson-Boyd, Racine, WI
Norman Katz, Boston, MA
Ann and Walter Nathan, Chicago, IL
Bob Roth, Chicago, IL
Ralph Saltzman, New York, NY
Mary and Walter Schatz, Nashville, TN
Harold Schuster, Philadelphia, PA
Myron B. Shure, Chicago, IL
June and Francis Spiezer, Chicago, IL
Warren Weisberg, Chicago, IL