A pair of Wisconsin artists known for their collaboration on artworks incorporating salvaged materials into idiosyncratic and humorous forms have brought their works to Waubonsee Community College for a fall exhibit.
The Waubonsee Community College Art Department is hosting “Not Like I Remembered,” an exhibition by artists Aristotle Georgiades and Gail Simpson, in the Arrowhead Room gallery in the Dickson Center on Waubonsee’s Sugar Grove Campus, Route 47 at Waubonsee Drive.
The exhibit, which opened Friday, Sept. 26, will continue until Thursday, Nov. 13. It is free and open to the public Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-9 p.m, and Saturdays from 8 a.m.-4 p.m., closed Sundays.
The exhibit includes a number of works from the sculptors and public artists, who both reside in Stoughton, Wisc., and who teach at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Georgiades and Simpson often also partner on projects as part of Actual Size Artworks, a collaborative team.
The artists’ work can be seen in various locations in Illinois and other parts of the United States. Georgiades’ work can also be seen at the Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago.
They are currently working on public art projects in Kansas City and Minnesota.
The work is characterized by “a strong profile, a sense of humor and excellent craftsmanship.”
Georgiades’ current sculpture relies heavily on salvaged woodwork, building materials and other existing objects, with the intent to “re-purpose them into expressive sculptural forms” as “a metaphor for the human need to adapt and change directions when confronted with obstacles or failures.”
Simpson’s recent works include a group of sculptures using cast-off toys and lawn ornaments, such as old plastic bouncy riding horses and cartoon plastic snowman lawn ornaments. She is “especially interested in combining objects from different decades – objects that people seem to have had in their garages for 20 or 30 years juxtaposed with more current versions of the same objects so that some striking coincidences appear.”
