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Art and Other Tactics: Contemporary Craft by Artist Veterans

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Ceramic boar heads with black background
Ceramic boar heads with black background

Art and Other Tactics: Contemporary Craft by Artist Veterans

Sept. 26, 2015–March 20, 2016

Guest Curator 

Emily Zaiden

This exhibition is co-presented with Craft in America and the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco.

Art and Other Tactics: Contemporary Craft by Artist Veterans is generously funded by a matching grant from the John and Robyn Horn Foundation

The Museum of Craft and Design’s exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the Windgate Charitable and Grants for the Arts.

The first major exhibition to explore the powerful role craft has played as a channel for creativity, rehabilitation, and transformation in the lives of veteran artists since World War II. Art and Other Tactics: Contemporary Craft by Artist Veterans will feature contributions of artist veterans and the pathways craft has taken through their visionary work. The exhibition will examine the way military service has impacted the outlook of artists over seven decades and led numerous veterans to pursue creative channels. The exhibition will explore how craft is a constructive antidote to the war experience.

Artist veterans have embedded their experiences in the objects they create. In contrast to the most destructive manifestations of war to which soldiers bear witness, craft is fundamentally about construction–physically, symbolically, and ideologically. Using craft as their voice, these artists have transformed their lives through the act of making. The exhibition will highlight four historic eras and the craft that was generated from them, in addition to touching on the start of the Army’s Arts and Crafts program.

The areas are as follows:
1. The GI Bill and the Greatest Generation: Opening the Flood Gates for Craft
2. Korean War Veterans and the 1950s
3. Hidden Scars: Artist Veterans Who Served in Vietnam
4. Craft, Expression, and the Military Today: Recent Years

View the exhibition gallery guide.

Above Image: Giuseppe Pellicano, War Pigs, 2012. Image courtesy of Kurt Lundquist.

William Daley

Otto Heino

Harvey Littleton

Charles Loloma

Harrison McIntosh

Earl Pardon

Ed Rossbach

Frances Senska

Ramona Solberg

Paul Soldner

Peter Voulkos

Jim Bassler

J.B. Blunk

Wendell Castle

Phil Cornelius

Val Cushing

Jim Leedy

John Marshall

Walter Nottingham

Don Reitz

Dolph Smith

Ken Hruby

Michael Naranjo

Thomas Orr

Robin Shores

Victor Spinski

Jesse Albrecht

Jill Allen

Drew Cameron

Thomas Dang

Daniel Donovan

Jen Hassin

Jeremiah Holland

Matt Krousey

Ash Kyrie

Teri McCans

Paper Doll Project

Giuseppe Pellicano

Tom Pullin

Judas Recendez

Ehren Tool

View the full press release of Art and Other Tactics: Contemporary Craft by Artist Veterans here.

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