The Allure and Power of Shiny Objects: Liza Lou

During the last quarter-century, American artists have produced powerful and seductive sculptures featuring brightly colored, nontraditional materials.  These range from cross-stitched works by Elaine Reichek to Faith Ringgold’s story-quilts, mixed-media extravaganzas by Rina Banerjee, and the quirky three-dimensional still-lifes for which Liza Lou is known. This lavishly illustrated program with scholar Nancy Heller will focus on Lou, placing her work into its broader sociopolitical context, and explore how feminism, religion, and humor are expressed through the unlikely medium of colored glass beads.