Today, for this week’s Social Distance Sunday, I thought we’d go check out an exhibit from renowned local artist and Bradley University Art Professor, Ken Hoffman at The Peoria Riverfront Museum.
For those of you that don’t know, Ken Hoffman came to Peoria via San Francisco in 1969 and started teaching painting at Bradley University. He’s become known as one of the best known and iconic Expressionist painter in the Central Illinois area.
You can read about him and check out an interview with him at Peoria Magazine by clicking on this link.
The Peoria Riverfront Museum is a big place and you can easily practice the fine art of social distancing while having a nice afternoon out and about in downtown Peoria, so let’s go and enjoy this Sunday afternoon while staying six feet away from everybody else in our path!
Sunday
Okay, here we are in downtown Peoria on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. We’ll hike up the stairs and go through the front doors…but wait a second…the door is locked. What’s going on here?
I looked inside and it was empty and then I glanced over at the hours and they’re closed on Sunday and Monday now.
They must’ve revised the hours due to this whole Covid thing.
Damn! Well, we’re not having a lot of luck on these Social Distance Sunday outings so far. Last week the animals weren’t out at the zoo and now this!
Time to take the walk of shame down the sidewalk and try to figure out what to do now.
As I turned the corner I saw the Peoria Holocaust Memorial and thought it would be nice to take a few photos of this display.
This display was born and conceived in 2001 and its name is The Button Project.
It was originally displayed at The Shoppes At Grand Prairie and ten years later it was moved here to the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
As I was taking these photos I heard someone say, “Hi Marty, what are you doing there?”
I turned around and it was Ruth Bitner, who’s the CFO here at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. I told her I had come to take some photos of the Ken Hoffman exhibit, but I didn’t know it was closed on Sundays now.
She told me the hours had been revised to due the Covid outbreak and said if I wanted to take a private tour on Monday, I could come by and she’d let me in.
A private tour? Wow, that’s social distancing at its finest hour! I thanked her and we agreed to meet the next day on Monday when I could take a private tour. I can’t wait!
Monday
Ruth told me to park in the back in the underground garage and enter the museum from there and she’d meet me inside.
So I drove to the museum and parked in the garage. Sadly, my parking of the car gets an Amber Alert. (Private joke alert!)
I entered the museum and Ruth met me and walked me over to the Ken Hoffman display room.
She had to get back to work, but told me that Peoria Riverfront Museum Curator, Bill Conger would be stopping by to walk me through the display. How cool is that?
The people here at Peoria Riverfront Museum are the nicest people in the world!
While waiting for Bill to arrive, I went ahead and took some photos of this impressive display of one of Central Illinois’ most unique and innovative artists.
As you can see this is an impressive display of Ken’s original and thought-provoking artwork.
Here’s Bill Conger, who’s the Curator of Collections and Exhibits here at the museum.
You can watch a virtual tour with Bill at the exhibition by clicking on this video here.
Bill took me to the earliest painting by Ken in the exhibit.
This is an untitled painting from 1962 and you can see Ken’s animal influences already happening in this early work.
This is another early work from 1970 and the title is, “The Anatomy Lesson of Bob Dylan.”
Bill told me that one of the key elements of Ken’s work is that it’s based in the theatre of the absurd. I love that and I love the oddball humor in this piece of art!
Carrying on with the theatre of the absurd concept, one of Ken’s on-going subject matter is painting large portraits of animals in a human existence. I love these and you have to see them in person to fully appreciate them.
This concept is like a combination of Andy Warhol’s pop art sensibilities and the absurdities of Monty Python’s humor. I love it!
Ken also does murals that are part paintings and part collages with found material and other objects.
This one is a bit of a self portrait with a picture of Ken as the face of this butterfly mural.
Here’s a more recent work that’s a study of a pig with references to fat, lard and McDonald’s fast food.
This is another recent piece with jewels adorning this painting of a bird.
Wow, this looks exactly like a fire extinguisher!
Note the detail and…uh…oh…you know what…never mind, let’s just keep moving along here.
I love this piece of art. If you stand back from it you just see a bird, but as you approach it you see all the other elements of the collage. Very cool!
Ken Hoffman is a multi-media artist and in addition to the paintings and collages there’s also a nice display of his ceramic art.
And that last piece is the perfect work of art to end this week’s socially distanced post.
The title of it is…
“Mask.”
Put one on and come on down to the Peoria Riverfront Museum and check out this display and all of the other fun and interesting displays and happenings at the downtown Museum.
They’re open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm. They need your support in these strange times, so stop on by for a fun and socially distant experience!
Thanks to Ruth Bitner and Bill Conger for a super-fun experience at Peoria Riverfront Museum!
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222 SW Washington Street
Peoria
309-686-7000
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Related Post: Social Distant Sunday @ The Peoria Zoo.