
Elenor Wilson
American Tourister Still Life, 2009
Glazed porcelain
Various dimensions
Racine Art Museum, Gift of David and Jacqueline Charak
Photography: Bob Barrett
Component Parts: Artworks Made of Multiple Elements
June 2, 2021 – February 12, 2022
Artworks made of multiple elements are not new to the modern era but contemporary artists have pushed their direction and visual potential. Through conceptual, metaphorical, and experimental lenses, artists literally make one object, or one ultimate work, out of many pieces. Component Parts features a wide range of media and approaches—both two and three-dimensional—that expand this conversation.
Sculptural configurations made of individual pieces can register as single objects with layers of information. Examples include Beth Lipman’s Still Life with Detritus, a sublime re-imagining in glass and wood of a historical still-life including the table it rests upon, and Eddie Dominguez’s ceramic Fish Dinner, a wall-mounted relief that cleverly uses underwater life-themed dinnerware to evoke an aquarium. Whereas Nancy Hild’s painting group, Allegory of Seven Sins, could be understood as seven individual pieces, its narrative is most powerful when all of the paintings are considered in relation to one another. This part-to-whole idea is further underscored with print portfolios by individual artists—where one or two pieces could stand in for the whole but a different message is conveyed when larger numbers of works are viewed together at once.
Drawn from RAM’s collection, the works in this exhibition are united by conceptual choices in presentation yet they reflect a variety of perspectives and subject matter—from cultural, historical, and domestic issues to material and formal investigations.
Please note that because this is a long exhibition that includes artworks made of fragile materials, some works—and therefore some artists—will be changed midway through.
ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION
Susan Baker, Donald Celender, David Chatt, Christine Clark, Tara K. Daly, Stephen Dixon, Eddie Dominguez, Matt Eskuche, David Gilhooly, Keiko Hara, Nancy Hild, Les Levine, Beth Lipman, Thomas Mann, Karen Theusen Massaro, Rebecca Medel, Megumi Naitoh, Adolph Rosenblatt, Nancy Schaefer, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Barbara Lee Smith, Therman Statom, and Elenor Wilson
Component Parts: Artworks Made of Multiple Elements
June 2, 2021 – February 12, 2022

Elenor Wilson
American Tourister Still Life, 2009
Glazed porcelain
Various dimensions
Racine Art Museum, Gift of David and Jacqueline Charak
Photography: Bob Barrett
Artworks made of multiple elements are not new to the modern era but contemporary artists have pushed their direction and visual potential. Through conceptual, metaphorical, and experimental lenses, artists literally make one object, or one ultimate work, out of many pieces. Component Parts features a wide range of media and approaches—both two and three-dimensional—that expand this conversation.
Sculptural configurations made of individual pieces can register as single objects with layers of information. Examples include Beth Lipman’s Still Life with Detritus, a sublime re-imagining in glass and wood of a historical still-life including the table it rests upon, and Eddie Dominguez’s ceramic Fish Dinner, a wall-mounted relief that cleverly uses underwater life-themed dinnerware to evoke an aquarium. Whereas Nancy Hild’s painting group, Allegory of Seven Sins, could be understood as seven individual pieces, its narrative is most powerful when all of the paintings are considered in relation to one another. This part-to-whole idea is further underscored with print portfolios by individual artists—where one or two pieces could stand in for the whole but a different message is conveyed when larger numbers of works are viewed together at once.
Drawn from RAM’s collection, the works in this exhibition are united by conceptual choices in presentation yet they reflect a variety of perspectives and subject matter—from cultural, historical, and domestic issues to material and formal investigations.
Please note that because this is a long exhibition that includes artworks made of fragile materials, some works—and therefore some artists—will be changed midway through.
ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION
Susan Baker, Donald Celender, David Chatt, Christine Clark, Tara K. Daly, Stephen Dixon, Eddie Dominguez, Matt Eskuche, David Gilhooly, Keiko Hara, Nancy Hild, Les Levine, Beth Lipman, Thomas Mann, Karen Theusen Massaro, Rebecca Medel, Megumi Naitoh, Adolph Rosenblatt, Nancy Schaefer, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Barbara Lee Smith, Therman Statom, and Elenor Wilson
Exhibitions at RAM are made possible by:
Platinum Sponsors
Anonymous
Nicholas and Nancy Kurten
Windgate Foundation
Wisconsin Department of Administration
Diamond Sponsors
Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation
Ruffo Family Foundation
Gold Sponsors
David Charak
Silver Sponsors
Lucy G. Feller
Ben and Dawn Flegel
Ron and Judith Isascs
Johnson Financial Group
Bill Keland
RDK Foundation, Inc.
Bronze Sponsors
Susan Boland
Andrea and Tony Hauser
The Norbell Foundation
Bill and Mary Walker