“Small Talk” and “Hope” Exhibitions

The Painting Center

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The Painting Center presents Small Talk in the Main Gallery and Janet Mueller: Hope in the Project Room.

Small Talk references a typical form of surface-level conversation and our desire as artists to communicate so much more than that. The ways in which we communicate with each other as artists and the ways we interact with our work as it is created is our concern. Furthermore, we seek to addresses the larger conversation our work has with a viewer, location, and art history as a whole. The individual paintings from this particular group of artists, brought together in the same space, create the opportunity to spark new conversations between the work, the artists, and the viewers. Our aim is to encourage conversations that transcend polite “small talk” both in the gallery and in the public sphere. The conversation of what is valued in contemporary art is in constant flux. Each generation of artists focus on different concerns and questions. The importance of communication and interaction with the past, present, and future, is key. Voicing our interests and listening to our collective community is important to all the MFA candidates herein. We believe that conversation can create new meaning and allow us an opening to find common ground; something we desperately need in the world today. We are interested in exhibiting a variety of painting approaches in an open and expressive collection of new work. Some artists in our group are concerned with the way we communicate thoughts, memories, and emotions. Artists include: Jana Anderson, Su A Chae, Jen Clausen, Genevieve Cohn, Mollie Hosmer- Dillard, Thomas Kennedy, I.K. Kim, Benjamin Lowery, Catherine Mulligan, Dorothy Portin, Mitch Raney and Julio Suarez.

In a world filled with violence and deception, artist Janet Mueller often times creates art that focuses on the ideal, hoping to bring peace by thoughts. The art displayed for this solo exhibition in the Project Room was inspired by Miami and national news. The work consists of abstract paintings, plus sculptures and constructions. Works created with salvaged materials like a vacuum cleaner hose, bicycle parts and wood found on the street convey humbleness and invite understanding into the lives of those living in poverty. Perhaps one day we will realize that ending poverty will reduce crime, help the economy and ease the bitterness between people. A long painting expressing views against ‘the wall’ shows irony with a 3-dimensional character placed ‘against the wall’, a figure made entirely from newspaper clippings reporting the investigation into the current administration. Mueller’s paintings are bold, simple abstractions filled with symbolism. The pieces were created to bring about positive feelings for a brighter tomorrow. Janet Margaret Mueller was born in Champaign, IL. She has a Bachelor of Science in Marketing, College of Commerce from the University of Illinois, 1975. From 1977 to 1984, Janet was a graphic designer and illustrator, as well as a producer of advertisements in TV and print. She was nominated for 30 awards for creativity during those years, winning 11, including a Best of Show for a direct mail piece for the University of Illinois. In 1993, Janet M Mueller moved to Key West, Florida. She has had 12 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows in Key West, Miami, Chicago, New York City and Lexington, KY. In 2001 she was invited to show her collection of paintings in Rome, Italy at the Centro per L’Assistenza Sociale e Culturale. In December 2008, Janet Mueller moved to Miami Beach, FL. She has been short listed by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places for projects in Aventura and Miami Lakes and selected by the Fine Arts Commission in Miami Shores to display works throughout 2014. In 2013, Mueller was chosen to paint an abstract on a 90-foot wall in the courtyard of R House, in Wynwood, Miami’s Art District.