“Gobless America” will make you want to take a second look; artist reception Dec. 7
By Jordyn Oie
Echo Staff Writer
Advice for those stepping into the RCTC art gallery in East Hall: Look closer.
In one brightly colored painting, a bold, cigarette-smoking tourist tries on a bracelet in an eerie shop. In another, civilians wander through a seemingly normal store, until you look closer and see that it’s the gift shop of a nuclear test site. In a third painting, a man waits at the DMV, its walls tinted in green tones with details that hint at alien activity.
These and many others are pieces from “Gobless America,” which creator Alessandra Sulpy describes as a “satirical painting series from the backseat of the great American road trip.
Above, top left: At the DMV; at right, trying on the merch; below, a long view of Alessandra Sulpy’s, “Gobless America.” Sulpy will talk about the show at a free reception Dec. 7 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Photo credit: Jordyn Oie
A“Modern and vintage kitschified tourist traps,” she writes in her artist statement, “are so often questionably delightful, unwittingly tasteless and oblivious to their own absurdity. It’s hard not to be awestruck by the innate strangeness of our rootin’-tootin’ American culture.”
Sulpy, an associate professor of drawing and painting at Winona State University, will present a talk at a gallery reception from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 7. The public is invited. Admission is free.
Art gallery director Crist Dahl said a priority is placed on featuring artists from the region, such as Sulpy, as well as RCTC art students. Shows, typically two in the Fall and three in the Spring, include a variety of artistic styles, including oils, watercolors, mixed media on paper and ceramics.
Sulpy said she hopes that gallery visitors will appreciate that her art is “satirical and done tongue-in-cheek. By having fun with the subject matter (which can be pretty grim, like nuclear missile museums and racism,” she said, the show “highlights the absurdities of American road-trip culture.”
The gallery is located at CC 200, across from the Hill Theatre and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
For more information, visit EA 210 on campus or email crist.dahl@rctc.edu