The Ann Tower Gallery is pleased to present DOWRY: NEW SCULPTURE BY STACEY R. CHINN. A Gallery Hop reception will be held for the artist on Friday, February16, from 5 to 8 p.m.

The Lexington artist is exhibiting a collection of sculptures created from various materials including clay, steel, hair, and found objects that address metaphorically the consequences for women in countries where the dowry tradition is still practiced. Several pieces focus on the killing of women by the husband and in-laws in “accidental kitchen fires” and each poses questions regarding the value of human life. For instance, Chinn has made a pillow out of clay that rests on a cast iron stove grate, and she’s filled an expensive, leather purse with concrete.

Chinn explains, “My aim is to physically confront the practice of dowry and the issues that surround it through ceramic and mixed-media sculpture, where each piece assumes a different personality, a unique identity according to its materials, shape and projected demeanor. My interest is not in creating exact images of women affected by dowry, but to create forms whose textures, materials, scale and suggestion of functionality engender individual identities–as if I were composing lives out of the materials at hand.”

Ms. Chinn earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kentucky in 1994 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1998 from Southern Illinois University. Her work has been included in several group and solo exhibitions in the region and nationally. The Dowry series was produced in fulfillment of an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

The Main Floor Gallery will feature Fragmentation, a ceramic installation by California artist Janet Neuwalder. The artist makes mysterious, fragile, porcelain fragments that allude to the natural world, which she places on bulky contrasting earthenware slabs.

We will also exhibit a variety of paintings, sculpture, photographs, drawings, ceramics and folk art by artists Patrick Adams, Minnie Adkins, Gary Bower, Nancy Fletcher Cassell, Carolyn Courtney, Susan Dygert, Joseph Fitzpatrick, Robert James Foose, Ulrike Hahn, Tony Higdon, Carolyn Young Hisel, Judith Pointer Jia, Ed Lawrence, Dal Macon, Guy Mendes, Lonnie and Twyla Money, Lennon Michalski, Mary Rezny, Suzanna Scott, Valerie Shesko, Dollie and Guy Skaggs, Karen Spears, Travis Strange, Robert Tharsing, Travis Townsend, Sharon Weis and Judy Rhea Wells.

The gallery is open Tuesdays though Saturdays 10am - 5pm, and Sundays 10am-4pm with extended hours during special events, theater performances and by appointment. For more information and for hi-resolution images please contact Ann Tower or Page Mendes at 859.425.1188.