Visual DisObedience: Iowa Artists Dissent, Propose, Actualize!

Reception for Visual DisObedience: Iowa Artists Dissent, Propose, Actualize! on display Nov. 7, 2019–Feb. 20, 2020 at Drake University’s Anderson Gallery.

The  artists in Visual DisObedience respond to the current state of affairs in our culture. Their artworks are a form of concentrated awareness. The saying that “visual artists make the invisible visible” proves true in this exhibition: the artists allow us to see relationships between mandates handed down by our governing system and the results on human beings. These relationships would otherwise be invisible abstractions: the mandate and the result widely separated by time and distance. Artworks included in the exhibit raise questions and propose new ideas, and at times they create desirable alternatives to present circumstances.

Artists showcased in this exhibition include Miriam Alarcon Avila; Paul Brenin; Drew Cameron and Combat Paper; Phillip Chen; Tom Christison; David Dunlap; Mira Engler, Iowa State University professor of landscape architecture; John Fender; Donté K. Hayes; Serena Illuminati; Edward V. Kelley; Emily Newman; M. Ryan Noble; Mitchell Squire, Iowa State University professor of architecture; Rob Stephens and Taylor Yocom.