Right: Lydia Ricci, We Should Have Taken Better Care of It, 2022; scrap materials; 5 x 5 x 4 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Lydia Ricci.
Uncovering the Remarkable Potential of Everyday Objects and Events
Sarah McEneaney and Lydia Ricci: The Extra Ordinary
at John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Over the centuries, artists have often drawn inspiration from their homes and the objects of everyday life. Philadelphia artists Sarah McEneaney and Lydia Ricci have similarly tapped the commonplace for their exhibition The Extra Ordinary, on view now at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
The Extra Ordinary, which runs through February 26, 2023, highlights the often-overlooked potential in the ordinary objects and events that animate and populate daily routines through paintings, small-scale sculptures, and an animated video.
McEneaney examines the rich opportunities for reflection through her daily practice of meticulously painting images of her home and studio, and the happenings within those spaces. She, and her ever-present pets, inhabit a lushly colored and detailed haven where activities and events such as drinking water and a rainstorm unfold into poetic moments of meaning.
Ricci’s miniature objects, made from hoarded paper and cardboard, act as stand-ins for emotionally charged experiences and relationships. Their diminutive scale provides a safe distance for contemplation of the difficult situations or memories they contain. Ricci gives the sculptures lives of their own in a series of stop-motion animations, imagining them interacting in a slew of absurd but serious situations.
Both artists’ bodies of work cohere into entire worlds—full of characters, drama, and plot twists—from the (un)limited surroundings of their homes and studios.
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is located at 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan, WI. Admission is free. For more information, call 920-458-6144, or visit jmkac.org, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Sarah McEneaney works as both an artist and community activist in Philadelphia. She received her certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1979.
She has had solo museum shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Mills College Art Museum, CA; and the List Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA. She has been in over 70 group shows throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and had consistent solo exhibitions in New York and Philadelphia over the last 20 years.
McEneaney is the recipient of the Yaddo Fellowship (2006, 2005, 1997, 1995), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2002, 2001, 1993), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2000), the MacDowell Colony Fellowship (1998), and the Chianti Foundation Residency (2009), among others. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Mills College Art Museum.
Lydia Ricci has a messy desk and a clean desk—one for her work as an artist and one for her practice as a graphic designer. But she’ll never tell which is which.
She spends most of her time making tiny sculptures of everyday objects “from scraps” of daily existence. Her fragmentary 3-D collages, which evoke a sense of wonder and hazy nostalgia, have been widely published and exhibited at galleries in New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Ricci teaches courses in branding, design, and storytelling at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Lydia is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and has studied in St Gallen, Switzerland, and Cortona, Italy.
Sarah McEneaney and Lydia Ricci: The Extra Ordinary is part of JMKAC’s Ways of Being, a series of exhibitions, programs, and performances exploring the role of artists as world-builders who can help us navigate the present, re-orient the past, and project viable futures.
Ways of Being is supported by the Kohler Trust for Arts and Education, the Frederic Cornell Kohler Charitable Trust, Kohler Foundation, Inc., and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
