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Karen A Gahagan
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Salem State’s Center for Creative and Performing Arts presents:
ASH/ Ken Reker/ selected works 1992-2022 from August 17 through September 15 in Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square, Salem, MA.
ASH is an exhibition of art works assembled in an installation that represents a thirty-year period of artistic process. This show is created and curated by artist Ken Reker, a professor of art + design at Salem State University.
Reker notes that “The exhibition is not a traditional retrospective as such but operates as a new and unique curatorial opportunity. The installation utilizes both past and current work, coaxing new forms and establishing unexpected relationships. After many years of making work, I am in the privileged position of having a large oeuvre of work that, in this project, is utilized as ‘raw material’ to be reformed, assembled and curated. The nature of my artistic production and process lies within the genre of assemblage. Assemblage is art that is made by assembling disparate elements, often everyday objects and found materials that are scavenged by the artist.
My process is multifarious in nature and often begins with a found image or an object. Through philosophical inquiry and material investigation, the work is developed through accretion over time. It is guided by my curiosity and levity throughout the process. Much of this body of work is inextricably linked to both my pedagogical and curatorial practices.”
The public is invited to an artist reception on Friday, September 2 from 6:30-8:30 pm.
View more information about additional exhibition events.
Exhibition hours: Monday, 12-3 pm; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, 10 am-1 pm; Friday, 2-5 pm (Friday, Sep. 9, 1-4 pm); Saturday, 1-6 pm (Saturday, Sep. 10, 10 am-3 pm); Sunday, 11am-3 pm
About the Artist
Ken Reker, Professor, Art + Design Department and Director of the Winfisky Gallery, Salem State University. Ken received his MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in drawing and printmaking from the University of Louisville. His public commission for the Boston Children’s Museum was an assemblage of objects from the museum’s Chinese collection into a large window installation that represented a three-dimensional Chinese landscape painting. In 2016, “Double Trouble" was commissioned by the Fort Point Arts Community in Boston. The sculpture examines our titanic love affair with plastic and petroleum-based products. Reker’s public sculpture installations include Sculpture Key West, FL., Floatillo Festival, Chicago, IL, Waterworks, Savannah, GA, Gloucester New Arts Festival, Gloucester, MA., Cambridge River Arts Festival, Cambridge, MA, Art in the Park, Ma., Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, MA and "Flying Horse" outdoor sculpture at Pingree School, Hamilton, MA.