BOSTON, MA.- Boston University’s Sherman Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings by Boston University School of Visual Arts Artist-in-Residence, Lise Lemeland. “Lise Lemeland: Dragons and Lace” will be on view through Friday, February 25, 2005.
Lemeland’s exhibition presents a series of new and recent paintings exploring her ongoing fascination with pattern and design. Gleaning inspiration from a diverse range of Western and non-Western sources -- from Indian and Turkish carpets and textiles to European lace and Japanese kimonos -- Lemeland creates intricately and skillfully patterned surfaces. Emerging from these lushly ornate backgrounds are elaborate configurations of dragons, snakes and other mythological creatures that Lemeland gathers from various styles of animal illustration, including Indian miniature manuscripts, 18th century engravings of animals and Chinese textiles.
Lemeland embraces the decorative, in all its forms and discourses, and creates a new visual language that is diverse and exquisite. “The emergence of this visual language is highly intuitive for me,” she said. “I am captivated by the worlds of color and pattern revealed in the decorative arts from other cultures.”
While her source material provides the structural foundation and visual framework for her paintings, Lemeland employs overt ornamental design to critique the many preconceptions (or misconceptions) of decoration and its perceived secondary status in contemporary art making. In Lemeland’s words, “By combining animals, lace, textile patterns, and carpet designs, my intent is to shift images that are seldom contemplated in the realm of ‘high art’ into a painting which, by virtue of its support and medium, will be categorized as part of that realm.”
Lise Lemeland received a B.A. in English and French Literature from Stanford University and a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, Calif. Lemeland received her M.F.A. in painting from Hunter College, New York, N.Y. She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions nationally, including at Anderson-Soule Gallery, Concord, New Hampshire; Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, Calif.; Marton Gallery, Redmond, Wash.; and Elizabeth Norton Gallery, Palo Alto, Calif. She has been granted numerous awards and artist residencies by Carter Hill Orchard, Vermont Studio Center, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center, among other institutions.
The Boston University Sherman Gallery is dedicated to showcasing the work of talented alumni, as well as current faculty and students in the School of Visual Arts at Boston University College of Fine Arts. Located on the second floor of the George Sherman Union Building at 775 Commonwealth Avenue, the gallery is highly visible to both the BU community and visitors attending programs on campus. Some artists featured in the space have included Pat Steir, Deborah Cornell, Hal Reddicliffe, Margaret McCann, and Jon Imber.
The Boston University College of Fine Arts is a conservatory-style school within a major research university, offering professional training in Music, Theatre Arts, and Visual Arts to 1,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Education at the College of Fine Arts begins at Boston University and extends into the city of Boston, a center of cultural, artistic and intellectual activity.
The School of Visual Arts at the College of Fine Arts was established in 1954 as a professional training school at Boston University. With faculty composed of practicing professional artists, the school offers an intensive program of studio training combined with liberal arts studies leading to the Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) and Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degrees. Courses prepare students for future study or professional practice in painting, sculpture, graphic design, or art education. Notable alumni include painters Brice Marden and Pat Steir; Ira Yoffe, vice president/creative director of PARADE Magazine; and Richard Heinrichs, sculptor and set designer whose credits include “Fargo” and “Sleepy Hollow,” for which he received an Oscar for Art Direction in 1999.
