Miller & Shellabarger: Alone Together

Dutes Miller & Stan Shellabarger

January 11 - February 27, 2011

Miller & Shellabarger: Alone Together features recent collaborative works by husband-and-husband artists, Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger. Relying upon historic forms of representation such as silhouetted portraits, embroidered monograms, woven hair, and cameos, Miller & Shellabarger conjoin their likenesses to document what they call "the bittersweet rhythms of human relationships." From larger-than-life paper cut-outs, to the use of outmoded photographic techniques such as the tintype, the artists use cultural history to re-contextualize their own relationship.

The artists' performances of Seed Drawings and Sewn Together on the Illinois State University campus will provide a unique opportunity for our community to witness contemporary art practice in action.  Sewn Together involves the artists stitching themselves together from shirt collar to trouser hem, then ripping the seams apart, to evoke both cooperative harmony and separational discord. Seed Drawings will be performed throughout the Illinois State University Quad and on In Exchange (between Stevenson and Williams Halls). Using bird seed, the artists will outline the perimeters of each other's body, creating overlapping illustrations of human presence directly on the ground.

Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger graduated from Illinois State University's School of Art in 1991 and currently reside in Chicago. They have exhibited and performed jointly at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, Maine), Western Exhibitions (Chicago), and Dolos (Miami), in addition to several art fair exclusives, including NADA (Miami), VOLTA (Basel, Switzerland), and NEXT (Chicago). They are recipients of the Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, the Artadia Award, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. In addition to their shared practice, each artist has an active solo career in art. The artists are represented jointly and individually by Western Exhibitions, Chicago.

Miller & Shellabarger: Alone Together is co-sponsored by MECCPAC, a Dean of Students Office Diversity Initiative, Theatre of Ted, and the Illinois Arts Council, A State Agency.