Mansfield Art Center is pleased to present Revisiting Rockwell, an exhibition of eighteen photographs by Chicago artist Maggie Meiners. An opening reception with the artist will be held on Sunday, September 30 from 3:00 to 5:00pm at 700 Marion Avenue in Mansfield, Ohio.

In Revisiting Rockwell, Meiners has meticulously recreated scenes from Norman Rockwell’s cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post with her camera, reframing contemporary issues in a series of uniquely American genre scenes.

While Rockwell produced his work from staged photographs which acted as a template for his paintings and illustrations, Meiners’ series explores his work in a manner in which the photograph is the final product. With each scene Meiners shoots and edits in her signature painterly style, she includes a nod to dozens of the elements in Rockwell’s work. At the same time, she contemporizes his work by weaving into her images social issues and physical elements more suggestive of today. The series represents an in-depth study of whether the nostalgia of Rockwell translates into our rapidly changing lifestyles and whether his very human tableaux can reflect this moment in time.

Meiners explains, “I am drawn to Rockwell’s work because I have always had a fascination with the past and end up having a better understanding of the world if I look at the old in the context of the new. As I continue to examine Rockwell’s work, I have noticed, for better or worse, that while sociological landscape has changed in many ways, there is much that remains the same.”

Anne Loucks is director of Anne Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, Illinois.

 

DOROTHY GILL BARNES: IN NATURE & WENDY MINOR VINY: MAKING ART ON THE FLY / THE SCHOOL PICKUP PHOTO SERIES | AUGUST 4–SEPTEMBER 9

THE ANDY HUDSON COLLECTION: JUST LOCAL FOLK & MAGGIE MEINER: REVISITING ROCKWELL | SEPTEMBER 29–OCTOBER 28
RECEPTIONS 3–5PM SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

Mansfield Art Center

700 Marion Avenue

Mansfield, Ohio 44906

mansfieldartcenter.org