YOURS & MINE
Joe Seipel
August 20–September 28, 2024
RECEPTION: Thursday, August 22, 5–8pm
VCUarts and The Anderson are pleased to present Yours & Mine, an exhibition by VCUarts faculty and Dean emeritus, Joe Seipel. The exhibition gathers work from across Seipel’s incredible 50-year history as an artist — a lifetime of creative work that spans an equally impressive range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, performance, and inter- and transdisciplinary practice. Alongside artworks, historical documents, ephemera, and an assortment of “not quite art” curios and oddities (carefully curated by the artist himself), the exhibition includes two of Seipel’s major installations: 18,621 Days (1999), a profound and immersive reflection on loss, originally presented at 1708 Gallery and reconfigured for presentation at the Anderson; and Classical Opera (1990s–present), a multimedia extravaganza—mythic in theme and scale—that is on view concurrent with the exhibition at Seipel’s Main Street studio.
At times poignant and deeply personal, the exhibition also bears witness to Seipel’s signature, tawdry humor, his curiosity, formal ingenuity, and playful, self-effacing irreverence. Yours & Mine captures all this while homing in on the central tension that animated Seipel’s practice: the negotiation of self in relation to community and history, and in the face of mortality. Yours & Mine honors Seipel’s courageous efforts to locate and assert a sacred “I” alongside the generosity, selflessness and good humor that defined his private and public life.
Joseph Seipel (1947–2024, b. Spring Valley, WI) maintained a consistent studio practice for almost 50 years, varying from large-scale sculptures to long-term process pieces, to installations, and recently to works that combine sculpture, painting and photography. His studio pursuits and his academic career intertwined and evolved from his early years in rural Wisconsin to dean of one of the most prestigious schools in the country. Seipel served in academic leadership roles and on numerous boards and councils. He received many honors including being awarded the University of Wisconsin, School of Education, Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award and in 2019 being named one of Richmond’s Persons of the Year by the Richmond Times Dispatch. He was most proud of his Life Time Achievement Award for Sculpture Education from the International Sculpture Center. Among many other locations, his work has been shown in Baltimore, New York, Savannah, Peru, and Richmond. He is represented by the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond.
For additional information please contact Sarah Irvin: seirvin@vcu.edu