HEIMO WALLNER

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HAMPDEN GALLERY

January 20 – February 10, 2005 Opening Reception: Thursday, February 03, 4-6 pm ArtistsTalk: Herter Auditorium Tuesday, February 1 at 4:30 pm

Search on google for artists who draw on the ceiling, and you’re sure to have Michelangelo in your results. Search on google for drawings on the walls and you may just happen upon Heimo Wallner. To view Wallner’s work in person – search no further than Hampden Gallery.

Beginning on January 20, 2005, Austrian artist Heimo Wallner will take on the challenge of transforming the bare, fourteen-foot high walls of the Hampden Gallery lobby into a drawing installation populated by his signature linear figures.

Don’t expect to see standard academic nude drawings. Wallner’s figures are more naked than nude, and they are muscled in an exaggerated fashion as if the artist has chosen to show us the strength and vulnerability of these figures in one fell swoop. Wallner’s figures are not passive models – they stomp across the wall seemingly full of anger and aggression. At times, Wallner’s figures can be seen on the prowl with a pack of wolf-like companions replete with razor sharp teeth – but more often than not, the figures seem isolated and alone. Set in a framework of puzzle-like geometric shapes, the gestalt of Wallner’s drawing installation forms a multi-layered narrative over-flowing with humor, insight, and possibility.

Wallner was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1961, He studied sculpture at the Vienna Academy of Art and has shown his work in Croatia, Italy, Mexico, throughout the U.S. - most recently at The International Print Center in New York City.

Gallery Hours: Mon-Thu: noon – 6 pm and Sun 2-5 pm Gallery Location: Southwest Residential Area of campus. Off University Drive.

Sponsors: SACEF, UMASS ART DEPARTMENT, UMASS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, UMASS ARTS COUNCIL, STONE SOUP CONCRETE