Fort Madison Area Art Association's July exhibit explores life's shifting nature with work by Lori Illner Greene

FORT MADISON — Fort Madison Area Art Association's July exhibit features ethereal artworks in glass and silk that go beyond a mere look at artistic impressions.

Artist Lori Illner Greene, FMAAA's executive director, said the pandemic and its many losses inspired her to create work that explores fragility through figurative sculpture, pastels, and encaustic painting.

The opening reception for Illner Greene's July exhibit, "Fragility and Impermanence," is 5 to 7 p.m. Friday in the FMAAA Main Gallery, 825 Avenue G, Fort Madison.

The display takes a look at life's shifting sands, spurred by the havoc a virus created.

"The idea for the 'Fragility and Impermanence' collection came straight out of the pandemic with the loss of so many people, along with my ongoing concerns of species loss," said Illner Greene.

She uses paper mâché-like assemblage, sometimes using bits of material collected from her wanderings, to create sculptures.

From the sculptures, she creates photographic imagery, drawings and paintings.

"The sculptures are extremely fragile themselves, reinforcing the ideas of Impermanence and eventual breakdown of the material," she said.

Sculpture images are "lit in a way to further suggest motion and printed on glass to articulate the lens I am providing to view the work through. Other work is printed or projected on silk installed with emphasis on the undulating energy involved," she said.

The work "has been described as membrane-like, suggestive of chrysalis, and shroud-like in its appearance," she said, suggesting "life stages and implying a transformation underway. Mysteriously, we can't tell if the work is under water or floating in air, softly undulating and twisting like a silk in air currents."

As fan of science, energetic connections associated with particle physics informs her work.

"Because energy is not really lost, this body of work represents this transformation of energy that occurs in all matter as it breaks down and repurposes back into new," she explained.

"This work is ultimately about our collective impermanence. And the energetic residue left behind," said Illner Greene.

She asks, "What does that look like as a residual memory?"

Illner Greene first got into art, "late blooming," following "a career that spanned GPS consulting to data analysis and agribusiness consulting, information systems design and development to historical building renovations and inn proprietorship."

She said at first, she wanted to become a veterinarian, but she enrolled in Drawing 101 and "art stuck."

"I did not become a vet, but I still graduated with a minor in biology and have remained attracted to sciences. Ideas of energetic bonds and energy transfer have factored into my conceptual work for many years now, evolving to the present collection I have just produced," she said.

Before exploring conceptual art, "I had been making figurative art concerned with place — bird portraiture, landscapes, etc. I was ready to jump back into some conceptual work," she said.

"On my long walks, I would pick up bits of broken wood and other items, and then began articulating with sculptural material the imagined energy 'leakage' or dispersal as the material slowly breaks down," she explained.

Her July FMAAA exhibit represents the breakdown of ephemera, and exemplify the interconnection that binds all matter together.

"This collection represents a fantastical interpretation of what that energetic force might look like," she explained.

Illner Greene is working on a master of fine arts degree, and her new exhibit is part of that journey.

As an artist, Illner Greene, who works at her studio, Greene Acres, has created work reflective of place and explores ideas of fragility through figurative sculpture, pastels, and encaustic painting.

Her work is often informed by ideas of energetic connections associated with particle physics.

Illner Greene graduated in 1991 from Mundelein College (Loyola University) with a bachelor’s degree in history, minoring in both art and biology.

Returning to study both art history and studio art, she attended Waubonsee Community College from 2003-2007.

Illner Greene enrolled in Sierra Nevada University (University of Nevada) in 2020 and she will graduate with an MFA in interdisciplinary arts in the fall.

Her exhibition will be on display until the end of the Finale musical performance evening from 6-9 p.m. on July 30.

Illner Greene will give an artist talk at Lunch ala Art at noon on Friday, July 29.

Exhibit sponsors are Iowa Fertilizer in Wever, and Fracture, the company selected to do the glass prints.

Green Acres Art Studio is in Niota, Illinois, where Illner Greene resides with her husband, Eric.

As FMAAA executive director, Illner Greene, an accomplished leader, is expanding working studio space for more classes and revitalizing the Art Center for the community's benefit.

She participates in solo and group art exhibitions.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: FMAAA sculpture exhibit shows 'Fragility and Impermanence'