If You Go
What: Café Avatar, art exhibition by Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher, visiting artists for Fall 2017 Diane Marek Visiting Artists program.
When: Sept. 25 through Nov. 3.
Where: Cress Gallery, inside the UTC Fine Arts Building, 752 Vine St., corner of Vine and Palmetto streets.
Admission: Free
Gallery hours: 9:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
Information: http://www.cressgallery.org.
Schedule
Who: Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher of Chicago’s Sonnenzimmer
When: Tuesday-Thursday, Sept. 26-28
Lecture: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, Benwood Auditorium, Room 230, Engineering, Math and Computer Science Building, corner of Vine and Palmetto Streets; followed by an Opening Reception directly across Vine Street at the Cress Gallery
Classes:
- Process and Materials Session: 11 a.m.-12 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, Cress Gallery inside the Fine Arts Building, 752 Vine St.
- Professionalism Session: 4-5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, Room 356, Fine Arts Center, 752 Vine St.
- Professionalism Session: 12:15-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, 12:15 – 1:30pm, Room 201, Engineering, Math and Computer Science Building, corner of Vine and Palmetto Streets.
In an attempt to describe what married artists Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher create, the Chicago Tribune said:
“They make stuff. Distinctive stuff. Fine art. Wearable art. Screen-print posters. Improvisational music. Gallery catalogs. CD packaging for Swiss record labels. Poetry magazine covers. Abstracted stuff that somehow finds a way to be practical and decorative but smart.”
Nakanishi and Butcher, who have titled their collaborative studio Sonnenzimmer, German for “sunroom,” are coming to UTC as part of the annual Diane Marek Visiting Artists series. From today through Thursday, the couple will lead workshops on “Process and Materials” and “Professionalism” as well as give an artists’ lecture.
Their work straddles the line between fine art and graphic design, specifically printing and typography for books and magazines, which constitutes most chunk of their business and art. They call it “finely applied graphics.”
An exhibition of their art, Café Avatar, will be in the Cress Gallery until November and includes screen and wood-block prints as well as sculpture, illustration, text and illustrations, some of which has never been on display before.
The pair have released books of their art, both solo and collaborative, and Butcher, who earned his art degree at Middle Tennessee State University, also is a jazz musician and released a handful of vinyl recordings.
They have exhibited in the United States, China and Europe with recent exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Vebikus Kunsthalle Schaffhausen in Switzerland and Texas State University, San Marcos. They also have given workshops and lectures from California to New York City to Finland, among others.
For more information on Nakanshi and Butcher, go to http://www.sonnenzimmer.com.
Nick Butcher prepares one of his musical performance/exhibitions.
