Gallery to feature works of graphic artists

The 2016-2017 Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery featured artist schedule resumes Thursday, January 12, with a pair of special guests from Chicago. Graphic artists Anna Filbert and Lauren Meranda will open “Make Play” during a reception from 3:30-5 p.m. on January 12.

“We are excited to bring in two Chicago designers for the next Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery Exhibition,” said Laura Colby, UIU assistant professor of art and Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery director. “We often bring in painters, photographers, sculptors, and installation artists for our exhibits, but seldom do our students or members of the general public get to see a body of work from graphic designers such as Anna and Lauren at the Gallery.”

Filbert was born and raised in Rochester, New York. Currently, she serves as an assistant

professor of graphic design at Judson University in Chicago. In addition to her teaching duties, Filbert manages her own studio, Anna Jane Design. Prior to moving to Chicago, Anna worked as a graphic designer, print production manager, and teaching assistant at Chermayeff, Geismar, & Haviv, a corporate branding studio in New York City.

 

Filbert is influenced by the design writings of Ellen Lupton, Michael Rock and Lorraine Wild, who each question and explore the designer’s role in authorship. Using color, materiality, texture, hand-made imagery and manipulations, and expressive typography, Filbert seeks connection to her audience through elements that communicate the designer’s individual voice, while still focusing on clarity of the message. With a background in print production, she looks to explore experimental, hands-on and tactile ways of image making.

Also employed as an assistant professor of graphic design at Judson University, Meranda operates Lauren Meranda Design. The multi-disciplinary design practice specializes in projects for cultural institutions, social activism, civic engagement and public memory through experimental media, collaborative storytelling and interactive design for physical spaces.

As a designer and producer of visual culture, Meranda strives to find means by which to let public memory emerge from the stories of the people it is bound to define. The projects and exhibits she works on seek to empower the individual to participate in the storytelling process and expand public memory to include previously unheard voices. Meranda’s exhibits utilize site for the interpretation and continuation of historical narratives by linking research, education, and social engagement into an interactive designed experience.

 

“Although we are surrounded by visual communication in our daily lives, rarely are we able to view a body of work from a designer, let alone two professionals of this caliber at the same time,” said Colby. “This exhibit definitely provides a special opportunity to discuss the individual approach, and the thought process in creating ideas and connecting the visual elements throughout each of the respective portfolios.”

“Make Play” will remain open at Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery through Friday, February 10. Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery is located in Edgar Fine Arts Hall at Upper Iowa University’s Fayette Campus. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.