Artist, Wendy Maruyama
From July 12 through September 4, the Penland Gallery presents Wendy Maruyama: The wildLIFE Project, a mixed-media exhibition drawing attention to the plight of elephants. Through an installation of large-scale objects, shrine forms, and informational panels, the show is designed to make a compelling case for the preservation of animals in the wild. The gallery is part of the Penland School of Crafts near the town of Spruce Pine.
A furniture maker, artist, and educator, Wendy has been making innovative work for 40 years. The wildLIFE Project was inspired by a trip to Kenya where she saw elephants in the wild and met with wildlife advocates to learn about the impacts of poaching.
“The social-practice component of her artwork is successful in combining art, advocacy, education, and community,” says Elizabeth Koslowski, former curator at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, where this touring exhibition originated. “Her work manages to pull you in with stirring visuals and keep you engaged with multiple layers of content.”
Wendy, who was a professor of woodworking and furniture design at San Diego State University for 30 years, has been a visiting instructor at Penland several times. Her work has been exhibited in New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, Seoul, and London and can be found in museum collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.
In this show, the elephant is memorialized in monumental form through a series of masks eight to 12 feet high and constructed from wooden panels. One of several shrine forms is based on a traditional Buddhist altar and incorporates an image of an elephant, flowers, a candle, an incense burner, and a handmade bell that rings every 15 minutes to memorialize the elephants that are being killed for their ivory. “This exhibition is a great opportunity to visit the recently renovated and expanded Penland Gallery, also currently featuring paintings by Asheville artist Kreh Mellick,” says Robin Dreyer, Penland’s communications director. “The new exhibition hall features high ceilings, movable interior walls to accommodate large-scale work, and a floor plan that can be reconfigured to suit the needs of each exhibition.”
Penland Gallery is housed in Horner Hall, which was built in 1930 as part of the Appalachian School, an Episcopalian settlement school that once occupied much of what is now Penland’s campus. The gallery sales area includes functional, sculptural, and two-dimensional work in all mediums by several hundred artists affiliated with the school. The adjoining Visitors Center Gallery presents objects and documents that illuminate the school’s history.
Penland School of Crafts is a national center for craft education offering workshops and artists’ residencies in clay, glass, metals, printmaking, photography, textiles, and wood, among other subjects. A nonprofit, tax-exempt institution, the school receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Penland Gallery and Visitors Center is located at Penland School of Crafts on Conley Ridge Road, just off Penland Road in Mitchell County. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; closed on Mondays. For more information call 828.765.6211 or visit penland.org/gallery.
