1/2/2020
FAYETTE, Iowa (January 2, 2020) – The works of Council Bluffs, Iowa, artist Jody Boyer will be on exhibit at Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery at Upper Iowa University’s (UIU) Fayette Campus January 13-February 21. The featured artwork will include a portion of Boyer’s “Forest for the Trees” series, which contemplates the literal and metaphoric forest that we all share. Using an assortment of antiquated painting techniques and 21st century digital processes, the work provides momentary glimpses, as if the viewer is looking through a microscope to a memory of another place.
“These pieces are a series of small gestures that imply a much larger idea,” Boyer said. “Conceptually each piece is a cinematic vignette that creates an intimate, fragmented and personal experience with atmosphere, landscape and a sense of place. I have also found that as I get older I am working more on paying attention to the little details rather than getting caught up in the idea of the bigger picture.”
A native of Portland, Oregon, Boyer received a bachelor’s degree in studio arts from Reed College, a master’s degree in intermedia and video art from the University of Iowa, and a K-12 teaching certificate at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She teaches studio art courses at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and visual arts at Norris Middle School. In 2014, Boyer received the nationally selected Caucus of Social Theory in Art Education’s Social Theory-in-Practice Award for K-12 art teachers, which recognizes and honors a teacher who utilizes social theory in classroom instruction. She was selected the 2016 Nebraska Outstanding Art Educator of the Year by the Nebraska Art Teachers Association.
In her studio practice, Boyer explores the broad interdisciplinary possibilities of traditional and new media with specific interests in personal and historic memory, cinema, landscape, the natural world and a sense of place. Her artwork has been shown in over 70 exhibitions across the country, including at the Des Moines (Iowa) Art Center, Urban Culture Project in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. Boyer has taught in a variety of preschool through baccalaureate environments throughout the Midwest, including universities, public schools and community nonprofits.
Boyer will lead an artist talk at noon, followed by a gallery closing reception Friday, February 21. Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery is located in Edgar Fine Arts Hall at Upper Iowa University’s Fayette Campus. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
