Beach Museum of Art exhibition and gift print encourage interaction with art
Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023
The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at K-State will feature the exhibition "wood+paper+box in your hands" starting Oct. 3. "Mise-en-Scène," the 2023 Beach Museum of Art Gift Print, is pictured above. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art will feature the art collective wood+paper+box in its latest exhibition and art gift print.
The exhibition, "wood+paper+box in your hands," will be open from Oct. 3, 2023, to April 6, 2024, in the Donna Lindsay Vanier Gallery. There will also be a virtual exhibition launch in spring 2024.
Katie Baldwin, Mariko Jesse and Yoonmi Nam are the artists behind the wood+paper+ box collective. The three artists met in Japan while attending a residency in 2004 for mokuhanga, a traditional style of Japanese water-based woodblock printing. In their process, each artist starts by making one work and sending it to the other two. They respond by creating and mailing their next prints, and the process repeats three to six times. Following self-imposed limitations, the works adhere to the mail requirements of the U.S. Postal Service, which means each work must be able to be flattened and small enough to fit in an envelope.
"What makes this collective stand out is its commitment to foregrounding group creativity founded on friendship and collaboration," said Aileen June Wang, Beach Museum of Art curator. "I find their mutual respect to be a breath of fresh air within a mainstream art world that often elevates individual artists."
The exhibition features the four works created by the collective to date, each a handmade box approximately 10 x 8 inches containing several prints. Each print encourages close looking and interaction through sight, touch and sound. Experiencing a work involves opening a box, taking out a print, and often, sliding a print from an envelope or sleeve and unfolding or unrolling it.
wood+paper+box, AL>CA>KS. 2015–2016, clamshell box and prints. Photo by Brian Hawkins, courtesy of the artists. | Download this photo.
The 2023 Friends of the Beach Museum of Art Gift Print box leans into the concept of interaction with an invitation to participate in the creative process. In the exhibition, visitors can handle and interact with a sample gift print, "Mise-en-Scène." The title is a phrase used to refer to stage design and the arrangement of actors in a theatre or film production.
A person interacting with the box can compose a "scene" using several prints, take a picture and upload it to Instagram with the hashtag #woodpaperbox. This exhibition offers the public the experience of interacting with the gift print and engaging in a dialogue on social media with the collective and other viewers.
The gift print program was started by Kansas State University's Friends of Art group in 1934. Continued by the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art, the group commissions a limited-edition print by a recognized Kansas artist for sale to Friends and the public. Friends of the Beach Museum of Art at any level receive a 25% discount on the price. For more information about purchasing this year's gift print, please contact the museum at 785-532-7718 or email beachart@k-state.edu.
The wood+paper+box Artist Talk by Katie Baldwin, Mariko Jesse and Yoonmi Nam will occur at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Beach Museum of Art. The talk is free and open to the public
The Beach Museum of Art is on the southeast corner of the K-State campus at 701 Beach Lane. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission to the museum is free, and free parking is available adjacent to the building. To catch a livestream event or view exhibitions online, visit the museum's website, or watch videos of the museum's special programs and events on its YouTube channel. For a calendar of events in the Art in Motion annual program series, visit the museum's calendar.
