EUGENE, Ore. -- (July 23, 2018) – The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon will feature the latest exhibition of works made by Cuban artist Elsa Mora. “Paper Weight,” comprised of works painstakingly made solely of paper and glue, will be on view in the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery from Wednesday, August 29, 2018, through Sunday, January 20, 2019.
“For the last eleven years, Mora has explored the expressive potential of paper,” says Jill Hartz, JSMA executive director and exhibition curator. “She sees the malleability of this material as a metaphor for the mind and its ability to morph and adapt.”
Mora’s 2-D and 3-D pieces are inspired by the mind’s five cognitive faculties: consciousness, perception, thinking, judgment, and memory. Thematically, Mora is interested in studying the intricacies of the human brain, the wonders that it can produce, and its potential for destruction and chaos. Her work as a whole reflects on universal issues of identity, connectivity, and survival.
Mora will discuss her recent work in a gallery talk on Friday, September 21, at 4 p.m. The talk will be followed by a public reception from 7 to 9 p.m.
A recipient of the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists, Elsa Mora was born and raised in Cuba and moved to Los Angeles in 2001, where she lived until 2014. She currently resides in upstate New York with her husband, William Horberg, and their two children. Mora’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide, and her work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; the Long Beach Museum of Art, CA; and the JSMA.
Mora has collaborated as an illustrator with such organizations as the Museum of Modern Art, Chronicle Books, The New York Review of Books, Penguin Random House, “O, The Oprah Magazine,” “Cosmopolitan,” and teNeues, among others. She has taught at the Vocational School of Arts in Camaguey, Cuba, and has been a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco State University, The Art Institute of Boston, the MoMA Design Store, and the National Gallery of Art, among other places.
“Paper Weight” and its accompanying catalog, which includes a Q&A with the artist, and is made possible by the Hartz FUNd for Contemporary Art.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, Europe, and the Americas as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of seven museums—and the only academic art museum-- in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.
Contact: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu
Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
