‘To Build a Home’ on UIU campus

On a journey to find what was once missing in her life, a Peoria, Ill., artist is searching no more. Dawn Gettler will feature her findings in the exhibit, “To Build a Home,” at Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery on the Upper Iowa University Fayette campus Thursday, Nov. 5 – Friday, Dec. 18.

In an art installation site-specific to Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery, Gettler puts form to the ambiance she has discovered. Aimed at evoking emotion, comfort, and relativity, she constructs environments that reflect intimacy, contentment, and love, according to the gallery.

“Many people can relate to a longing for something in their lives,” explained Laura Colby, UIU art lecturer. “Dawn’s installation is an expression of her contentment, a love letter to her partner, and an invitation for personal experience in which her viewers can feel comfort, dream, relate to someone else’s happiness, and hopefully find some of their own.”

Gettler received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from The University of Northern Iowa in 2003. She earned a master’s in printmaking from The Ohio University in 2006. She has served as an artist-in-residence at The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Spiro Arts, The KHN Center for the Arts, Artspace, and Spudnik Press.

In 2012, Gettler was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a full fellowship residency in printmaking at Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, N.Y.  She recently provided site-specific installations for solo shows at Ohio Northern University’s Elzay Gallery in Ada, Ohio; 1912 Gallery at Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and the Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery in Davie, Fla.

Gettler currently serves as program manager and gallery coordinator at Prairie Center of the Arts, and as an adjunct faculty member at Bradley University, both located in Peoria, Ill.

A reception will coincide with the opening of “To Build a Home” at Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery from 3:30-5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5. Prior to the reception, Gettler will host an artist talk at 2:30 p.m. in Edgar Fine Arts Hall room 310. The featured artwork will remain open to the public during regular gallery hours through Friday, Dec. 18.

Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery is located in the Edgar Fine Arts Hall on the Upper Iowa University Fayette Campus. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The complete 2015-2016 Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery schedule can be viewed online at http://www.uiu.edu/ocm/news/2015/aug/bing-davis-schedule.html.