Lost and Found at UConn's Benton Museum

Hello everyone Chris here,

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to take a sneak peak at the new art exhibits at our Benton Museum of Art. During my visit, I met with Diane Lewis, who is the Museum’s public relation and marketing coordinator. She was thoroughly knowledgeable about every exhibit we looked at and she was even able to give me background information on the artists themselves.

The first art display we looked at was one called “screenshots” in the Evelyn Simon Gilman Gallery Reception. The concept of screenshots is that artists have taken a multitude of pictures from different social media sites such as Facebook, Ebay and Craigslist, then blended them together to from one  complete picture. Although at first thought I was a little skeptical of the idea, but after close analysis of every picture, it was fascinating how an artist was able to use non-related pictures to create a cohesive piece of art. I would defiantly recommend this exhibit to anyway who uses a social media website, which is probably everyone.

The next display that Diane and I looked at was “From Objects to Objects: Found Sculpture by Leo Sewell”. All throughout the room were sculptures of artist Leo Sewell, representing animals, people and household objects. However these sculptures were actually created using an arrangement of common manufactured objects, almost looking like a familiar Lost and Found box. From one sculpture alone, I was able to pick out a ruler, a button, a yoyo, a tennis racket, even an old school pokemon card! My personal favorite was the large hanging marlin that was composed entirely of steel kitchen utensils. This exhibit by Leo Sewell was definitely one of my favorites that I have seen throughout my years probably because every time you look the sculpture you recognize a different object you failed to notice before.

Throughout the academic school year, the Benton has various exhibits and artists showcases that are presented for UConn students to check out. This “lost and found” exhibit will continue for the remainder of the semester – but if you miss it – another great show will go up in its place so be sure to stop by and check out the Benton!