Unknown Game Series | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

Unknown Game Series

“Unknown game series” is an exhibition of works resulting from Mie Kongo’s ongoing search for diversity in sculptural materials and processes. Although the core of her research has been in ceramics, she experimentally engages in mixing materials and processes to discover the unexpected. While investigating sculptural relationships of volume, proportion, surface, color, balance, and tension, she contemplates the notion of natural balance, the unification of opposites and the interdependence of all things.

Employing systems, order, randomness, and chance in creating her compositions, Mie utilizes a range of materials as diverse as porcelain, wool felt, and found furniture, to construct “building blocks” that she assembles into geometric abstract compositions resembling the early stages of an architectural model or primordial architectonic structures. She looks for coincidences/bumps between the elements that create meaningful impact or relations, waiting for the moment when the work appears to have become a self-contained unit of meaning that is open to multiple interpretations. While precisely designed and carefully crafted, there is also a feeling of casual playfulness in her work “To play” and “be playful” are, for her, serious activities.

Mie Kongo

Mie Kongo grew up in the outskirt of Tokyo, Japan and now lives and works in Evanston IL, where she makes multidisciplinary work: ceramic sculptures & installations, 2D work and porcelain designed objects. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including recent exhibitions, “Unknown game series” at Dan Devening Projects + editions, Chicago, IL, "Beyond Function" Arts and Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI, "Reformat: Digital Fabrication in Clay" Lillstreet Art Gallery, Chicago, IL, “Circle in a Square” Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL. She has been showing her porcelain products at Paul Kotula Projects, Ferndale MI and Room 406, Chicago IL, Lillstreet Art Gallery, Chicago, IL. Residency: Shigaraki Ceramics Center, Shiga, Japan, European Ceramic Work Center, ‘sHertogenbosch, Netherland, “Intonation 2013” Deidesheim, Germany. She received BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Currently she is... Read More

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.

CALENDAR

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay up to date on upcoming programs and opportunities through our monthly newsletter.