Karey Kessler
Realm of the Universe (detail), 2004
14x3 feet, guache on paper



Jiha Moon
Bosch's Trip East, 2003
12 x 16 inches, acrylic,
oil on wood panel
Courtesy of Curator's Office,Washington, DC



Isabel Manalo
Sunday Brunch, 2005
36 x 48 inches
acrylic, enamel, latex on canvas



Christine Buckton Tillman
Preparatory drawing for site-specific
installation, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, MD--The University of Maryland's Union Gallery presents Boundaries: Contemporary Landscape, on view November 10 - December 22, 2005. The exhibition features four Washington, D.C. area artists - Karey Kessler, Isabel Manalo, Jiha Moon, and Christine Buckton Tillman. The opening reception will be held Thursday, November 10 from 5 to 7pm.

The artwork presented in Boundaries references various traditions of landscape painting while taking landscape beyond a representational or idealized record of actual space. By imbuing the scenes with personal memories and imagined spaces, the artists shift the gaze of the viewer from an impersonal depiction of space to an internal exploration.  

Karey Kessler's 14-foot long fictional map, Realm of the Universe, can be viewed as a topographical representation of the human mind where rivers and trees meet fragments of ideas, thoughts and memories. Also very personal, Isabel Manalo's treescape paintings, Sunday Brunch and Estate, are derived from places and events from her past mixed with other sources such as illustrations from her young daughter's children's books. The confused spaces Manalo creates, where foreground mixes with background, reveal the artist's discomfort with the privileged sites suggested by the paintings' titles.

Jiha Moon's complex utopian visions borrow heavily from both an Asian landscape tradition and contemporary pop culture. Moon's interest in the juxtaposition of diverse elements - cultures, textures, symbols and colors - manifests itself in her invented scenes of turbulent worlds. Moon is the recipient of this year's prestigious Trawick Prize.

Christine Buckton Tillman's playful installation of an upside-down tree made from wood-grained contact paper and felt pennants, twists our idea of landscape by using mass-produced representations of places and things to create the scene. This piece continues the artist's interest in objects whose appearance confuse their intended purpose. Tillman was included in the recent Soft Openings exhibition at the Katzen Center.

This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Prince George's Arts Council.  

The Union Gallery is located on the first floor of the Stamp Student Union on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. Admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public. Hours are 10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

For more information, contact the gallery at 301-314-8493
or by email at uniongallery@umd.edu .