Joint art gallery show highlights climate action-inspired works by IU Northwest professors

Joint art gallery show highlights climate action-inspired works by IU Northwest professors

Open now through December 7: woodcuts and drawings by Madeline Winter, Corey Hagelberg

Indiana University Northwest School of the Arts is pleased to announce an exhibition entitled Regeneration now through December 7, 2023, in the School of the Arts Gallery, Arts & Sciences Building (3415 Broadway Avenue, 2nd Floor Gary, Ind.).

Regeneration is a joint show featuring woodcuts and drawings by Madeline Winter and Corey Hagelberg, studio art professors at IU Northwest.

The titular theme for the show refers to the natural processes of our ecosystem and the steps that human beings can take to support restoration and minimize waste.

These practices are a shared interest between Hagelberg and Winter and the show highlights the two artist’s individual approaches to climate action.

Winter’s work explores a shift in her life perspective, how she has made intentional choices to “take care of what [she finds] precious”.

Hagelberg summarizes the personal approach in his woodcuts: “I want viewers to see my struggle as I grapple with difficult subject matter…As the climate crisis deepens, my passion moves less towards self-expression and more towards finding functional ways to connect art and climate action.”

In addition to Hagelberg’s woodcuttings and Winter’s drawings, the show features a collaborative piece, Carbon in Every Available Corner. This installation is made entirely of Biochar, the remnants of controlled, low emissions fires that is returned to soil. This supply is the output of a forest Hagelberg built for 12 years.

Corey Hagelberg is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher. He is co-founder and director of the Calumet Artist Residency (CAR), whose mission is to connect people, art and nature. For the last 15 years, his work has highlighted the relationship between the human and natural world, but has increasingly addressed issues of food justice, community growing spaces and permaculture as it relates to creating regenerative cities and local economies and designing a livable planet. He lives and works in Gary, Ind.

Madeline Winter is a visual artist and educator from Chicago. She received her BFA in painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA in painting from IU Bloomington. Her paintings and drawings explore the challenges as well as the optimism required to be curious about life following a life-changing medical diagnosis and difficult recovery. These works explore the connection to the natural world and the intersection of science and magic. Works include objects, totems and imagery that asks the viewer to determine the significance based on their own personal experiences. Elements of humor and abstraction speak to the surreal experience of embracing mortality with joy and wonder. Bright, highly chromatic colors reflect the buoyancy of hope while solidly rendered paintings and drawings emphasize the connection to the present. Winter has shown work in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and throughout Indiana. She has held residencies in Barcelona, Chicago and Indiana. 

Regeneration is on view in the Arts & Sciences Gallery through December 7, with an artists’ talk at 1 p.m. on November 22. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday noon to 5 p.m.