“Prosodies, #2” was made in 2013 by artist Dianna Frid. Comprised of plaster, pigment, fiber, paper and metal, the piece will be on display as part of the “Split Complementary” exhibition opening at DePaul Art Museum Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy of Dianna Frid)CHICAGO — With refined appreciation for materials, but very different approaches, the art of Dianna Frid and Richard Rezac meets on complementary grounds at DePaul Art Museum’s “Split Complementary” exhibition.
“The artists’ works complement each other and enhance each other, but don’t necessarily finish each other,” said Matthew Girson, curator of the exhibition and professor in the Department of Art, Media and Design at DePaul University.
Opening Jan. 28, the exhibition will feature installations, sculptures, books and wall art by the artists, as well as rare books from the Special Collections Department of DePaul’s John T. Richard Library, and a variety of objects from the DePaul Art Museum’s permanent collection. The items from the museum’s collection include a red hat from South Africa, a Turkish Ottoman miniature painting covered with written notations, South American photographs from the 1930s and other objects and images.
According to Girson, the pieces he selected from the two DePaul collections share formal qualities and reveal surprising connections to Frid’s and Rezac’s work.
In her work, Frid utilizes a wide variety of materials including cloth, embroidery floss, foil, minerals and rocks to make two-and three-dimensional objects and installations. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at institutions such as MoMA PS1, an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art in New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and the Neues Kunstforum in Cologne, Germany. Her work is also housed in public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Clinic.
Frid was born in Mexico City and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, with her family when she was a teenager. Frid studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts. She currently lives in Chicago and teaches at the School of Art and Art History at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Dianna Frid's “Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm” is made of embroidery and mixed media. Made in 2014, the piece will be on display as part of the “Split Complementary” exhibition opening at DePaul Art Museum Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy of Dianna Frid)Cast bronze is Rezac’s material of choice for his sculptures in this exhibition. He uses paint to embellish surfaces and add design elements into his art. His work has been exhibited internationally at the Twig Gallery in Brussels, Belgium, and at numerous places in the United States including the Portland Art Museum, James Harris Gallery in Washington and Feature Inc. in New York. Rezac’s work also resides in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, University of Chicago Smart Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery.
Rezac was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Oregon and a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He lives in Chicago and is an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“One of the great things about their art is that it invites participation and suggests some known idea,” added Girson. “Their work always seems to bring content to the tip of the tongue, but it never delivers it, leaving the work open to individual interpretation.”
“Split Complementary” will be on display at the DePaul Art Museum Jan. 28-April 24. It will open with a reception on Jan. 28 from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Made in 2010, artist Richard Rezac's “Untitled (10-10)” is comprised of wood, aluminum and pigment. It will be on display as part of the “Split Complementary” exhibition opening at DePaul Art Museum Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy of Richard Rezac) Also on display at the DePaul Art Museum beginning Jan. 28 will be “Nexo / Nexus: Latin American Connections in the Midwest.” Drawn from museum’s permanent collection, alongside loans from private collections, the exhibition features Latin American artists in the region and explores their influences, connections and unique reflections of the people, culture and place. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the 2016 Latino Art Now! Conference taking place this April.
The DePaul Art Museum at 935 W. Fullerton, just east of the CTA’s Fullerton ‘L’ stop, is open Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission is free. For more on the DePaul Art Museum’s upcoming exhibitions and events, call 773-325-7506 or visit
http://bit.ly/DPAM15.
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Media Contact:Wendy Smit
wsmit@depaul.edu312-362-7749