The Plumbing Museum is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition — Industrial Nature — featuring new works by Artists-in-Residence Joshua Ruder and Jenn Houle. The exhibit will showcase new works created during the artists’ three-month studio residencies at the Manoog Family Artist-in-Residency program, launched last fall in partnership with J.C. Cannistraro.
The exhibition will open on Thursday, October 26, 2017 and will be on view through December 15, 2017. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 26 from 5-7 p.m. and will include live music by solo jazz pianist Anastassiya Petrova, currently studying piano performance at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. The event is free and open to the public.
Since its inception in 2016, the residency program has awarded five artists the time, space, and resources to explore new techniques and ideas. The primary goal of the program is to support and invest in emerging artists and provide them with opportunities to utilize industrial materials and equipment. Participating artists receive full access to a studio workspace, fabrication and welding resources, exhibition opportunities, and a stipend for supplies.
Industrial Nature will feature a collection of sculptures and large-scale installations made out of assembled, painted, and scavenged objects, as well as recycled industrial materials. The show highlights the artists’ personal observations and interpretations of our relationship with nature in the technological age. Joshua Ruder’s work combines carved stone and welded steel elements into forms that resemble both the human figure and the shapes of the environments that we have built up around ourselves. “The sculptures I have created during this residency utilize traditional and midcentury modern techniques and principles of form while addressing 21st century problems. I am trying to illustrate where we stand as human beings” Ruder explains.
Jenn Houle’s new series focuses on a more personal connection to nature. In these pieces she mines the vocabulary she has built up in her work (fur, leaves, animals, and most recently the human form) to investigate their origin in her past experiences. “Over the course of this residency I’ve turned my artistic focus inward, trying to flesh out where my creative impulses sprung from” Houle says. She places sculptural painted objects alongside plasma cut metal shapes and found materials in the new series and is displaying them alongside her paintings and drawings.
The Plumbing Museum is open to the public every Thursday 12-5 p.m. October 26-December 14.
Additional hours: Monday-Friday by appointment only. For more information, please visitwww.theplumbingmuseum.org or call 617-926.2111.
About the Plumbing Museum
Located in a renovated ice house in Watertown, MA, the American SanitaryPlumbing Museum is dedicated to promoting the contributions of the plumbing industry and its talented craftsmen across the United States. Through its unique mix of industrial history and modern art, it showcases artifacts and exhibits that range from 19th century tubs to modern toilets and a functioning rainwater reclamation system. The museum welcomes nearly a thousand visitors each year for tours and private events, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal. For more information, visit: www.theplumbingmuseum.org.
About the Artists
Joshua Ruder
Joshua Ruder is primarily a figurative sculptor, currently residing in Newton. He is a graduate of Brown University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts with honors. His work ranges from realistic to abstract and includes pieces in stone, steel, ceramics, plaster, wood, and glass. For more information please visit joshrudersculpture.weebly.com
Jenn Houle
Jenn Houle is a mixed media artist from Newton, N.H. Her artwork focuses on ecological imbalances such as threatened, endangered and invasive species. Jenn’s passion for the environment stems from growing up in New Hampshire, where she spent time camping, skiing, swimming and hiking. Jenn received her MFA from Cornell University and her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, where she graduated with distinction. For more information please visit jennhoule.com
Can’t wait!! Your last two exhibitions were wonderful!! I’m looking forward to being there yet again.