O'Connor Art Gallery Presents Work by Helen Maurene Cooper and Maria Gaspar

Dominican University's O'Connor Art Gallery will present Recent Work by Helen Maurene Cooper and Maria Gaspar with an opening reception on Wednesday, January 20 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. In addition, the artists will give a talk at 3:00 p.m. on January 20. The exhibition will continue through Saturday, February 27.

This exhibition includes recent photography by Helen Maurene Cooper and installation‐based work by Maria Gaspar. Each artist takes a critical and self‐reflexive investigative approach, using urban cultural detritus as material to explore identity, gender and history. Cooper explores the many worlds of nail art in both Chicago and Philadelphia. Her photographs depict friends, colleagues and students wearing acrylic nails, while posing and performing a related identity in front of airbrushed backdrops. 



Gaspar's installations, on the other hand, are comprised of debris often associated with parades, festivals and celebrations that are essential to the lives of Latin American immigrants in the U.S. Her projects are informed by her own identity as a Latina artist and also by her work for the Public Art Group, creating projects in many of Chicago's ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Often using the color brown, symbolic of mud, re‐birth and skin, Gaspar's tactile sculptures burst with celebratory colors that, along with the brown layers, reflect the layered, emotional and temporal unfolding of events. 



The O'Connor Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor of Lewis Hall, is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The receptions and exhibits are free and open to the public. For more information please contact Jessica Cochran at (708) 524-6597 or jcochran@dom.edu.