FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JANUARY 13, 1981

News Release

OPTIONS 7: JANE WENGER -AN ENVIRONMENTAL INSTALLATION JANUARY

31 -MARCH 22, 1981

The seventh exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Options” series will be an environmental installation by Chicago photographer Jane Wenger. The work, installed in a room designed by Wenger in the Museum’s lower gallery, will be on view from January 31 through March 22, 1981. For this project, her first installation, Wenger has combined cropped, close-range photos of the human face, enlarged to mural size, with taped recordings. The effect is a merging of sounds and images into a provocative environment.

Jane Wenger is known for her striking nude studies. Working only in black and white with wide-angle hand-held cameras, Wenger photographs her figures either from a distance as part of the environment in which they appear, or at close range as mysterious topographical surfaces. The photos used in this installation expand on the ideas Wenger has explored in the close-range, severely cropped images; their inherent abstract quality is further enhanced by Wenger’s enlargement of the images to mural size.

Wenger was educated at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois. Recent exhibitions of her work include “Recent Photographs,” Frumkin Photographs at Landfall Press, Chicago (April, 1980) and “Jane Wenger,” Foto Gallery, New York (Sept., 1980).

Options 7 was organized by MCA Curator Mary Jane Jacob and is supported in part with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

On Saturday, January 31, 1981, at 11:00 a.m., a lecture/discussion will be presented at the Museum by the artist.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alene Valkanas or Nancy Coffin, 280-2660. Museum of Contemporary Art 231e. Ontario st., Chicago 60611 (312) 280-2660