Art exhibit to feature installation

Ann Chuchvara’s art is ethereal—bits of hand-cut acetate, paper, wax and string suspended in midair or mounted on a wall; patterns of delicate lines rendered in grease pencil on glass.

In September, the Rockford, Mich., artist will create a mixed media installation at Northwestern College. Entitled “what remains,” the show will be on display in the Te Paske Gallery Sept. 19 through Oct. 14. A public reception with the artist is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m.

Chuchvara’s creations are inspired by the ways memories are formed and recalled. “How do we keep close to something, someone, a moment that is dear after it has passed?” she asks. Often it’s the unnoticed things in the background that serve as reminders: the fabric on a couch, the pattern of a piece of clothing, the color of a lampshade.

“My work addresses the delicate connections that bind us to what is no longer tangible and the elements that exist in the periphery of our daily lives,” she says. “Combining repetition and pattern with inconspicuous materials, I attempt to glimpse what is fleeting and to examine the mind’s perseverance of holding onto a memory.”

Chuchvara earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder after majoring in art at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Her work has been included in exhibitions in nine states, a gallery in Chicago, and the countries of Ecuador, Iceland and Latvia. She’s also been a resident artist in Spain and Iceland. She is employed as a textile designer by Scott Group Custom Carpets in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Te Paske Gallery is located in the Thea G. Korver Visual Arts Center, on Highway 10 at 214 8th Street SW in Orange City. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to midnight Sunday.