Longtime Wichita artist Resnick gets solo exhibition at Ulrich
While the current solo exhibition of well-known local artist Ann Resnick’s works at the Ulrich Museum of Art is called “Chapter & Verse,” it could just as well be called love and death, given the subject matter of several of the pieces.
About 15 pieces of Resnick’s work, along with some of her project notebooks, are on display in the exhibition, which will run through May 7 at the museum, located on the Wichita State University campus. “Chapter & Verse” is one of the museum’s three spring exhibitions, all showcasing women artists. Admission is free.
“It’s a survey, dipping in and out of my work since 1992,” Resnick said about her exhibition. It’s also a survey of Resnick’s life, her love of reading and newspapers, and her ability to work in different mediums and use laborious processes.
“We wanted to bring Ann’s work together so they could talk to one another and show the depth and breadth of her work,” said Ulrich curator Ksenya Gurshtein during a tour of the exhibition with Resnick.
While the Ulrich Museum tends to exhibit modern and contemporary artists from around the U.S. and the world, it occasionally breaks up its schedule by showcasing local and regional artists.
Resnick, whom the Ulrich calls a “pillar of contemporary art in Wichita” on its website, has often exhibited nationally and internationally but she’s not often the sole feature of a Wichita exhibition. For many of the pieces, it’s the first time they are being exhibited in Wichita outside of Resnick’s downtown live-work loft space. She’s been part of Wichita’s art scene for decades, creating art and even co-owning Project Gallery, with fellow artist and husband Kevin Mullins.
While the total number of pieces in the exhibition may sound small, the creative inspiration, the types of mediums Resnick used and the scale and clever titles of each work make a big impression.
For example, Resnick’s 40-panel “Our Town” piece measures about 2 feet wide and 36 feet long. Gurshtein calls it a “magnum opus” in the exhibition catalog.
A self-professed avid consumer of newspapers, Resnick used the obituary pages of The Wichita Eagle for the piece, hand-coloring and spray painting the pages and then using stencils and a burning process to leave behind colorful and sometimes delicate-looking remnants of the death notices.
The process is very time-consuming, and for another piece using much the same process, Resnick titled the work according to how much time it took her in hours, minutes and seconds to create the filigreed-looking piece: “115:17:13.”
Newspaper front pages, again primarily Wichita Eagle Sunday editions, form the basis of “Pessimist’s Index,” a project in which Resnick asked other artists to join her in commenting on the news by color-blocking articles on a scale of yellow for positive news to shades of gray and black for bleaker, negative articles.
Some pieces were inspired by Resnick’s family history and experiences, like a 7-by-7 grid of 12-inch squares where Resnick has completely transformed family images into a sort of color-coded grid. The piece is called “Jeannesplice,” a playful nod to her mother’s name and Resnick’s manipulation of the family photographs. “We’re so Sorry” draws on condolences sent to Resnick when her husband died in 2018.
Visitors are greeted with Resnick’s “Offering,” a colorful spiral work created with found plastic flowers and inspired by the floral tributes often left at grave sites. Measuring 8 feet in diameter, it actually makes an ideal selfie-station as Resnick has left a blank disc-shaped center, she said.
Another three-piece work also deals with the idea of floral tributes, this time playing off the Victorian practice of using certain flowers to send certain messages. Resnick’s work depicts hyacinths, which convey regret, according to that practice.
One of the works — “Spring,” another spray paint and burned paper piece that is owned by the Ulrich — had a larger-than-life display when it was part of the Ulrich’s billboard art exhibition in 2020. To help bring art to the community during the pandemic, the Ulrich had displayed pieces from its collection on billboards throughout Wichita.
To celebrate its three spring exhibitions, the Ulrich is planning to host a free reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25. The event was postponed from late January due to the local surge in COVID rates; be sure to check the Ulrich website and Facebook pages to confirm the event. Masks are required on the WSU campus. The other two exhibitions are “The Annunciation/The Bridge,” a large-scale, multi-screen video installation by Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila in the museum and the sound installation “Declaration” by Lebanese artist Annabel Daou, which is at the Grace Memorial Chapel.
Ann Resnick ‘Chapter & Verse’ exhibit
Where: Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University campus, 1845 N. Fairmount
When: now through May 7; museum hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Sundays, university and major holidays. A spring exhibition celebration event is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25.
Admission: free
More info: 316-978-3664 or ulrich.wichita.edu
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 3:11 AM.