December 2, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Van Kleek
Cal Poly University Art Gallery
805-756-1571
‘Designer’s Designer’ to Exhibit Her Unique Work In University Art Gallery Exhibition at Cal Poly
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Renowned illustrator and designer Marian Bantjes will showcase her unique work in the next University Art Gallery exhibit, to run at Cal Poly from Jan. 9 through Feb. 20.
As part of the exhibition, Bantjes will present a lecture on Jan. 16, and a reception will follow in the University Art Gallery.
Bantjes has been referred to as a “designer’s designer” who is equally at home with a pen, a computer, or just a piece of cake and some powdered sugar. The exhibition will reflect the diversity of her creative production to present a complete picture of her work.
“What’s exciting about Marian Bantjes is that she uses an immense set of tools for design,” said Cal Poly design Professor Charmaine Martinez, the show’s curator. “She doesn’t limit herself to any single idea, medium or style.”
Bantjes works in pencil, pen and ink, vector art, digital/photographic manipulation, photography, scratchboard, colored pencils, crayons, paint, fabric, ribbons and “other objects that pop into her head.”
“Reading, watching films, or just having conversations with people will make connections and trigger ideas that will cause me to rush off to a notebook to store something away for a future date,” the artist said. “I can be inspired by anything I’m not bored by. I can be inspired at any moment by the strangest things.”
Bantjes has lectured at institutions across the United States and Canada, including Cal Arts, the Art Center, and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Her work has been shown in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, UC Davis Design Museum, and Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy.
She has been featured in such publications as Eye, STEP inside Design, Communication Arts, and Creative Review. Influential designer Rick Valicenti called her “perhaps the most important, conceptually complete designer of our time. Not only does her form-making resonate with the spirit of the moment, her writings reverberate with laser-sharp clarity and gut-busting insight amidst culture’s din. She sets a beautiful page of type, is a sweetheart to collaborate with and is socially enigmatic.”
Bantjes clients include Pentagram, Houghton-Mifflin, ESPN Magazine, Details, InStyle, The New York Times Magazine, Print, and Wired.
The University Art Gallery is located in the Dexter Building on campus. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday 11-4 when school is in session. For more information about the upcoming exhibit, go online to http://artgallery.calpoly.edu or call 805-756-1571.
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