DeVos Art Museum prepares for wood-based exhibit

The DeVos Art Museum at NMU is whittling away at an upcoming exhibit.

It’s called Scenes of Sights and Sights of Scenes, and it’s the product of Chicago-based artist Mike Rea. It features scenes and pieces crafted entirely from wood between 2012 and 2014.

Rea said that when it comes to doing shows so far from home, deciding what gets into the exhibit takes some thought.

“I think it’s always great to be able to edit something,” he said. “Bring more, kind of the Coco Chanel, take a look at the mirror before you leave and take two accessories off and then leave the house, so it’s kind of one of those, you over-prepare, especially because it was about an eight-hour drive. It’s just not an option to run back and grab something else; brought some extra work that wound up getting edited out.”

Many of the pieces come from past shows and share the common theme of space.

“A lot of these ones are dealing with actual space, forgotten spaces, and also 3-dimensional objects that are for the most part 2-dimensional. They’re very flat things, but at the same time they demand or take up physical space,” Rea said.

Rea has been working art from wood for several years, evolving his style from performance based pieces, to more gallery friendly works. One of the projects he hopes to do soon, however, is a recreation of the famous Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore scene in Ghost, but ripping wood on a table saw instead of spinning pottery.

Scenes of Sights and Sights of Scenes opens Friday and runs through December 12th.