Re:res: Contemporary Interpretations of the Cravens World Collection
Nov 12 - Dec 12 2015
UB Art Gallery

Taking impetus from specific objects in the collection as well as the open storage display methods used to house the Cravens World Collection, 8 artists produced new work that manifests concerns of cultural appropriation, utility, value and subjectivity. Artists include Skylar Borgstrom, Caitlin Cass, AJ Fries, Kristine Mifsud, Carl Spartz, Marc Tomko, Kurt Treeby and Necole Zayatz. The title is derived from prefixes re (with reference to) and res (a thing, matter or object).

While still retaining their individual artistic practice, each artists’ work makes reference to the Cravens World Collection as their resource. The Cravens World Collection includes nearly 1,100 objects and is an astonishing amalgam of archaeological and ethnographic objects spanning the globe and dating as far back as 4,500 BC. Donated to the UB Art Galleries in 2008 by Annette Cravens, objects are housed in an open storage display at the UB Anderson Gallery. For this exhibition at the UB Art Gallery at the Center for the Arts, select objects from the Cravens World Collection will be on view alongside the artists’ work as this exhibition.

Kristine Mifsud, an artist working in Toronto, Canada, has built her practice out of an intuitive fascination with small found metal objects she refers to as Unidentified Metal Objects (UMO). For this exhibition Kristine has reengaged a lost value for these objects by mimicking the Cravens World Collection display of currency.