The Wandering Gallery Project-Jeffery Abt

When I first stepped into the Ridderhof Martin Gallery, I was a bit underwhelmed. I walked in hoping to see something along the lines of the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., but what I found instead was a small-scale gallery with exhibits that didn’t really pop out to me with first glance. When I took a closer look, I found a piece of art that was very intriguing. It was a tiny, singular chair that stood alone in what looked like an empty fold up wooden suitcase.  I looked at the name of the work, The Wandering Gallery, and thought what a perfect name for this piece.

Just after reading the name, i started to study the piece. What first captured my attention was the perfect rectangle shape of the two boxes. I noticed how much this aspect contrasted to the more natural form of the adjacent wood plank, which began to curve inwards in a half crescent shape. The outside of boxes were made out of a very smooth wood, with perfect sharp corners. The wood was a medium brown chestnut color with visible grain. The inside of the boxes were a very light shade of tan which contrasted to the outside wood color. Also the inside of the boxes were very textured and appeared rough, which greatly differed from the smooth wood on the outside. The size of the piece appeared to be close to that of an average briefcase and there was a singular yellowish chair off to the left-hand side of the work.

Based of Abt’s other works at the gallery, I was able to start formulating some thoughts on the consistencies in his stylistic patterns. I observed that most of his pieces including the one I was looking at, had a very polished and finished wood grain look on the outside, in contrast to a very unfinished, sketch-like design on the interior. He kept consistent to the theme of his project, The Wandering Gallery, as all the works could be packed up in suitcase like boxes.

I researched some background information of Jeffery Abt in hopes of gaining a little more insight into his works. Abt is a professor in the James Pearson Duffy Department in Art and Art History of Wayne State University. He pursued curatorial and exhibitions work at the Wichita Art museum, the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago, and the University’s Smart Musuem of Art. He’s an artist, an author, and co-editor for the Museum History Journal.

His recent work has been focused on the visual culture of museums, this is where the Wandering Gallery art series was born. According to Abt, it is the visual representation of the behind the scenes action of galleries and musuems. It symobizes the never-ending cycle of setting up and taking down new exhibits. The box like suitcase structure highlights the portablity of art and how it gets passed on from place to place.