Ideas, Ideals, Criticism, and Concerns is Bridge Work Madison artist Gillian Drier’s personalized take on quilting through beads, community, and Black future. She invited Black community members to imagine a time when they or their descendants have risen above mere survival into a realm of rest and joy. “What does your day, your community impact, your success, your health, your family, your art, your life look like in a world where Black people can finally rest and the work is complete?” Drier created eight textile and embroidery works that illustrate these visions of Black power and Black future.
Drier will join fellow Bridge Work Madison artist Kel Mur for a virtual artist talk and Q&A on Thursday, January 28, 2021 at 5pm streamed live on Facebook. Audience members can submit questions online during the event or send questions in advance to hello@artlitlab.org.
Sponsored by Dane Arts, Bridge Work Madison is the Dane County chapter of a multi-state project founded by Jason S. Yi and Leah Kolb of Plum Blossom Initiative (Milwaukee), and joined in 2017 by Arts + Literature Laboratory. Bridge Work provides critical opportunities for emerging artists to broaden the scope of their professional connections and experiences. Bridge Work endeavors to forge a more interconnected arts community throughout the Midwest by facilitating meaningful artistic exchanges and dialogs among artists and art-centered organizations and professionals.
The emerging artists invited to participate in this project express the energy, commitment, and willingness to benefit from the resources and guidance provided by each region’s facilitators. A culminating group exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists who are dedicated to their practices and poised to fully engage the contemporary art world. Kel Mur and Gillian Drier will represent Madison in this year’s group exhibition at the Allen Priebe Gallery at UW OshKosh from March 29 to April 14, 2021.
The exhibition will be on view at Arts + Literature Laboratory from January 14 through February 27, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exhibitions in ALL’s new galleries will be available to view during limited hours from 12-5pm Thursday through Saturday or by appointment. Visitors inside the building will be required to wear masks and practice social distancing, and the number of visitors will be limited according to current public health guidelines. Exhibition admission is free.
