If you went to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s “State of the Art” show last year, which featured emerging contemporary artists from around the country, you may have stepped into Dan Steinhilber’s Mylar “Reflecting Room.” Here’s what Crystal Bridges wrote about Steinhilber:
Dan Steinhilber’s studio occupies a portion of a bustling industrial warehouse filled with sculptural and everyday materials. Steinhilber was trained in drawing and painting, but in his work he is continually pushing everyday materials—often found and then altered—into large-scale sculptural forms. He has worked with garbage bags, chain-link fencing, plastic water bottles, and obsolete household appliances. The artist finds beauty and wonder in the mundane—creating visual poetry from the commonplace. Transformation is a key theme in Steinhilber’s practice. In Reflecting Room, he creates an uncanny interior from a material more often used for insulation. You have the experience of being inside a child’s birthday balloon or one of Andy Warhol’s signature floating Clouds. The title suggests both the opportunity to see oneself in its mirror-like surface, and the space to contemplate life’s larger questions.
Ignore the fact that the last sentence sounds like Guy Noir’s job description on “A Prairie Home Companion” and head to Conway on Thursday to the opening reception of Steinhilber’s exhibition in the Baum Gallery of the University of Central Arkansas. Then return Saturday for the unveiling of his outdoor installation, “Primary Developments.”
Steinhilber, who has lived in Washington, D.C., since 2000, is artist in residence at UCA this fall, and will give a talk at the reception, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., about his gallery sculpture show. The exhibition runs through Oct. 23.
The outdoor installation, between Harrin Hall and McAlister Hall on campus has been going up since Monday. The unveiling will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Steinhilber has also exhibited at the Marlin Underground at the Kreeger Museum in Washington, D.C., and Hold on Loosely at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, N.C.