Image, courtesy of the artist: Barometer: June 10, 2020, night into morning, Boston, 2020, collage and mixed media, 19 x 15 inches
Solo exhibition featuring works by Auburn alum Billy Renkl.
May 20 – August 22, 2024
With each mixed media collage in this exhibition, Auburn alum Billy Renkl explores the histories embedded in vintage and antique papers. Paper, so easily ripped, marked and worn, reveals tangible, and often mysterious, histories. Renkl's overall practice approaches collage as a way of embodying ideas in conversation with these histories.
On collage, Renkl says, "A collagist is always in the art store. As with photographers, the world is always approaching us with an outstretched hand: 'This?' And it's my endless work to notice."
The world is on its way to you
always, never resting—
the red of that pillow on the couch
crosses the open room to meet your eyes—
the sound of someone driving by the house
travels on until it finds your ears—
even this hard floor—kneel now to touch it,
feel how it springs up to be felt—
and—oh—behind these bright things
are all the other things that are coming—
the air between you and the world is
only and always all the world—
always on its way to you.
- David Ebenbach
Artist Lecture & Closing Reception:
When
Thursday, August 22, 2024
5:00-7:00 pm CDT
Where
Artist Lecture: 005 Biggin Hall
Reception: Biggin Gallery, 101 Biggin Hall
This event is free and open to the public. 005 Biggin Hall and Biggin Gallery are handicap accessible.
About the Artist
Image courtesy of Billy Renkl.
Billy Renkl grew up in Birmingham, AL. He attended Auburn University (illustration and graphic design) and the University of South Carolina (drawing); he now lives in Clarksville, TN, where he teaches resolutely analog media at Austin Peay State University. Renkl’s work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions, including shows in Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Cincinnati, and Berlin, Germany. He is the illustrator of The Comfort of Crows and Late Migrations, both by Margaret Renkl, and When You Breathe by Diana Farid, among other projects.
Exhibition presented by the Auburn University Department of Art & Art History, OLLI at Auburn, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
