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Deo Gallery's March Exhibit - "5 Colors, A Big Maze, and a Shape Named Dave"

Deo Gallery's March exhibit offers an interactive experience for all ages, with opportunities to create shapes, mazes, and practice observation skills on a search for color. Through three separate but intertwined projects, artist Ben Pawlowski…

Deo Gallery’s March exhibit offers an interactive experience for all ages, with opportunities to create shapes, mazes, and practice observation skills on a search for color. Through three separate but intertwined projects, artist Ben Pawlowski displays his teacher and artist selves in unity, encouraging a special collaborative effort within the community.

  • #HaveYouSeenThisColor engages people through the simple, but the often challenging act of observation. Pawlowski chose five colors with the intent for viewers to search for these colors throughout their daily life, and then post their findings with the #HaveYouSeenThisColor. For more information on Ben’s colors and community findings, visit https://www.benpawlowski.com/about-3
  • The Massive Multi-Maker Maze invites participants to contribute to a broader objective while leaving plenty of room for creative choices. Each person can design one portion of a maze that will be connected to other sections, to finally create one massive maze that will be displayed physically and digitally. To create your own maze with printable pages, visit https://www.benpawlowski.com/massivemaze
  • #aShapeNamedDave asks people to start with the same, specific abstract form, and take it in any direction they want. With virtual and in-person exhibit access, each person can make their own unique Dave! Dave is not unique for the geometric property, but for the humor of each creation. For downloadable Dave blueprints, visit https://www.benpawlowski.com/shapenameddave.

As an artist and educator from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Pawlowski is most concerned with connecting ideas and creating interactive and participatory art through this exhibit and much of his work. From the mazes he has drawn since his undergrad to the toys and tools he makes and the open-ended collaborative projects he organizes, his art is often about getting one to do or try something. Through these projects, he hopes to create space for open-ended collaboration as both an artist and a teacher.

“At times in my life, trying to be both an artist and an educator has felt like trying to control somewhat competing forces. How can I be an engaged, practicing artist when locked into the almost never-ending (even when rewarding) obligations of being a teacher? I have changed my strategy to deal with this balance in recent years. Now I try to be both simultaneously, as often as possible,” says Pawlowski.

Pawlowski received his B.S. in Art Education from the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and earned his Master’s in Art and Visual Culture Education from the University of Arizona. Since being in Marquette, he has taught art to youth 2through various programs and organizations.

“Artists are often trying to show or reveal something through their work, which I see as an approach to teaching. Teachers are often trying to provide a unique and memorable experience, which I see as an approach to creating art. Sometimes I don’t even know why I ever considered these practices as separate parts of who I am.”

“The works in this exhibit show how I have independently explored various concepts and how others are involved. Sometimes the separation between their idea and mine is obvious. Other times, the difference is a bit more confusing. While this exhibit shows these projects at a significant state, it does not show any projects at completion. These three projects are simply at an interval from which these ideas may continue to grow.”