Anthem

The Cincinnati Arts Association's Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts announces three new exhibitions: The Ashes, an ambitious and contemplative site-specific installation by David Rohs; Earth in Upheaval, a new series of intricate and enigmatic collages by Jenny Honnert Abell and Michael Scheurer; and Anthem, an imaginative and exuberant installation of quilted assemblages by Denise Burge that pushes the boundaries of quiltmaking to new extremes.

For the past four years Denise Burge has been producing non-conventional quilts spurred by her interest in narrative and landscape, particularly the landscape of the Appalachian region of North Carolina where she grew up. Utilizing the quilted form as a point of departure, Anthem will present a new series of wall hangings that combine elements of animal, vegetable and mineral in an exploration of the primal forces within landscape and the body and our physical and emotional identification with nature. A large portion of the exhibition will include a large-scale installation that spans the gallery walls from floor to ceiling and encompasses both quilted forms collaged together and painting directly on the wall. Additional quilted forms conceived as "word bubbles" will occupy another segment of the gallery as independent works. The free association of elements, images and text inherent in these works is designed to create a sensation of daydreaming in the viewer.

Denise Burge received a bachelor of fine arts in painting and printmaking from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, in 1987, and a master of fine arts in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, in 1991. Since 1992, she has served as an associate professor of fine art at the University of Cincinnati. Her work is represented locally by Linda Schwartz Gallery, where she has exhibited in both group and solo exhibitions. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council in 1994, 1997, and 2001. In addition, she received a Summerfair Aid to Individual Artists grant in 1996. In 2003, she was awarded an Ohio Arts Council three-month residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.