Panel moderated by David Ouellette
Erin Wiersma’s artistic practice focuses on the body’s capacity to absorb and respond to an environment. Based in the Flint Hills of Kansas, she is creating works on paper with the land at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, one of the few remaining protected grasslands in the world. This body of work has fostered recent interdisciplinary and community-based collaborations. Erin is represented by Robischon Gallery in Denver, Colorado and Galerie Wehlau in Munich, Germany. Her work has been featured in Minding Nature at the Center for Humans & Nature, OnVerge at the CUE Foundation, Art21 Online Magazine, and Two Coats of Paint. Erin received her BA from Messiah College and completed her MFA at the University of Connecticut. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Kansas State University.
Terry Conrad is interested in the community aspects of printmaking and the trace materials found within the landscape. In 2014, he was awarded a grant to develop the Adirondack Forum, a collapsible venue made of old printing blocks and other found wood that functioned as a meeting place, performance space and classroom. In 2018, he joined a Scientific Research Cruise on the Robert Gordon Sproul, to sample benthic foraminifera in the Santa Barbara Basin on a trip funded by the National Science Foundation.
Conrad is a recipient of the 2017 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Drawing, Printmaking and Book Arts, the 2015 and 2016 Grant Wood Fellowship in Printmaking, residencies at The Elizabeth Murray Residency (New York), Frans Masereel Centrum (Belgium), Penland School of Craft (North Carolina) and the Vermont Studio Center. He received his BFA from Alfred University and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Conrad is an Assistant Professor in Printmaking at the University of Iowa.
Artist, activist, and environmentalist, John Sabraw was born in Lakenheath, England. Sabraw’s paintings, drawings and collaborative installations are produced in an eco-conscious manner, working toward a fully sustainable practice.
Sabraw works with environmental engineer and Ohio University Professor Guy Riefler to remediate streams polluted by abandoned coal mine seepage, in southeastern Ohio. At the lab, they extract iron oxide from the toxic acid mine drainage (AMD) and neutralize the water’s acidity. They then return the resulting clean water to the streams. The team creates pigment from the iron oxide, ranging in hues from yellow to brown to red to black.
Sabraw’s art is part of numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, the Elmhurst Museum in Illinois, Emprise Bank, and Accenture Corp. He has most recently been featured in TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, London, and Great Big Stories. Sabraw is a Professor of Art at Ohio University where he chairs the Painting + Drawing program.
The College of DuPage Visiting Artist Series provides opportunities for the community to interact with leaders in the field of contemporary art, design, and culture. Through lectures, conversations, and workshops, a diverse range of art professionals provide students with new perspectives on contemporary artistic practices. This year’s series highlights artists who are committed to engaging with materiality through diverse mediums and practices.
The series is a collaboration between the Cleve Carney Museum of Art and the Fine Arts, Architecture, and Photography programs. All lectures are free and open to the public. Times and Locations are subject to change.
