
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 the 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.
More About the Exhibition
Artists in the Exhibition
David Chatt, Christine Clark, Tara K. Daly, Stephen Dixon, Eddie Dominguez, Matt Eskuche, David Gilhooly, Keiko Hara, Caren Heft, Nancy Hild, Les Levine, Beth Lipman, Thomas Mann, Karen Theusen Massaro, Megumi Naitoh, Tina Rath, Adolph Rosenblatt, 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 the 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.
More About the Exhibition
Artists in the Exhibition
David Chatt, Christine Clark, Tara K. Daly, Stephen Dixon, Eddie Dominguez, Matt Eskuche, David Gilhooly, Keiko Hara, Caren Heft, Nancy Hild, Les Levine, Beth Lipman, Thomas Mann, Karen Theusen Massaro, Megumi Naitoh, Tina Rath, Adolph Rosenblatt, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Barbara Lee Smith, Therman Statom, and Elenor Wilson
Gallery of Work
Exhibitions at RAM are made possible by:
Platinum Sponsors
Judith and David Flegel Fund
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Ron and Judith Isaacs
Nicholas and Nancy Kurten
Windgate Foundation
Diamond Sponsors
Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation
Ruffo Family Foundation
Gold Sponsors
David Charak
Silver Sponsors
A.C. Buhler Family
Baird
Lucy G. Feller
Ben and Dawn Flegel
Annette Hirsh Family
J. Jeffers & Co.
Dorothy MacVicar
Bronze Sponsors
Anonymous
Susan Boland
Virginia Buhler
Butcher & Barrel/Amos Los Tacos
Educators Credit Union
Express Employment Professionals
Get Behind the Arts Studio Tour
William A. Guenther
Tom and Sharon Harty
Tony and Andrea Hauser
David and Judy Hecker
Bradley Lynch
Carlotta Miller
Larry and Barbara Newman
The Norbell Foundation
The Prairie School
Georgiana Treivush
Twin Disc, Inc.
Deb and Will Walker