A place to rest, work, wait for an appointment, or have dinner with family, the chair is an important, yet often underappreciated part of life.
Visitors can see this familiar object through artistic lenses in the Moss Arts Center’s summer exhibition, “Sitting Pretty: The Chair Re-Envisioned.” Artists from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee expand upon traditional forms and cultural associations, re-imagining the possibilities of what a chair is and can be.
Also on view is an exhibition featuring a succinct selection of photographs by conceptual artist and pioneering video artist William Wegman. Presented for the first time in Virginia, “Sit!” features Wegman’s beloved subject — Weimaraners — on tables and chairs created by renowned architects and designers Charles and Ray Eames and George Nakashima.
“Sitting Pretty: The Chair Re-Envisioned” opens with a reception on June 21 from 5-7 p.m. in the Grand Lobby of the Moss Arts Center, located at 190 Alumni Mall.
More than just a place to rest, chairs offer a glimpse into the world’s collective ideas about status, comfort, beauty, utility, and place. From office chairs to thrones, the chair is often synonymous with place in society, role in the family, or station in life. The exhibition presents a selection of contemporary chairs expertly crafted with a variety of materials, styles, and techniques. These unique and inventive chairs push beyond expectation and even functionality into new realms of design and expression and invite viewers to see what is usually considered an ordinary object with a fresh perspective.
“Sitting Pretty: The Chair Re-Envisioned” will feature more than 30 works, some created specifically for the exhibition.
“Sitting Pretty: The Chair Re-Envisioned” is curated by Virginia Tech graduate assistants Sarah Tucker and Emily Bianchi in conjunction with the Moss Arts Center curatorial staff.
Tucker and Bianchi are graduate students studying material culture and public humanities, a cross-disciplinary program in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. The exhibition is on view through Aug. 12.
The Moss Arts Center’s galleries and all related events are free and open to the public. The galleries are regularly open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.