Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art to Host Artist Talk with Maggy Rozycki Hiltner

Superfun(d), 2021, 96 x 144 x 1 inches, found red and white quilt, linen, cotton, artist-designed printed cotton, ironing board cover fabric, pre-quilted fabric, fusible adhesive, cotton embroidery floss and thread. Photo courtesy of Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) will host a Closing Reception and Artist Talk with Red Lodge artist, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner on Friday, April 11th from 5:30 – 7:30pm. The program is at 1400 1st Ave North, Great Falls, Montana and is free and open to the public. This is the last week for visitors to explore the exhibition, which has its last day on view April 12th. Visitors at the event will hear from the artist about her artistic career and the artwork on view. A full-color brochure publication will also be available for visitors to take home. Hiltner’s lecture is titled “Why So Serious?”. “Humor is both an artistic and life strategy toward understanding and relating to the world. A sense of humor that started off as a schoolyard defense mechanism can end up as artistic empowerment. Some questions that came to mind in researching and writing this presentation were: Does art have to be serious to be taken seriously? Can humor be considered a universal and a historical phenomenon or do we project our own current tastes on our predecessors? And what makes something funny? This presentation is a brief visual survey of humor in art that includes contemporary and historical art images as well as images of the artist’s own work.” -Maggy Rozycki Hiltner Those seeking more information can contact Nicole Maria Evans, Interim Executive Director/Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at nicole@the-square.org or by calling 406.727.8255. About this exhibition: Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art invites the public to explore the visual and narrative quandaries quilted into the amazing textile artwork created by celebrated artist Maggy Rozycki Hiltner. Classical mythology, oblivion, hazardous waste, beauty, death, and surveillance meet whimsy, color, and fabric in this special installation of Super(fun)d, Installation, and Morningstar, three significant large works by the artist. One of the featured works, Installation, was created in 2017 using a found quilt, cotton and linen, and found and hand-stitched embroidery. “There are many visual metaphors, symbols, and references to myths in Installation,” said Hiltner. “You will find images of reconnaissance satellites, snare traps, peacocks, and eyes, including the many eyes of the Greek giant, Argus Panoptes, to reference surveillance and loss of privacy. I use snakes to symbolize gossip.” Morningstar is a unique work of art that stands alone while interconnecting with Hiltner’s works on exhibit. Originally shown in context with Installation, this work also speaks to surveillance, deception, and bemusement but with an added lighthearted disposition. The confusion created by the contrasting narrative and visual content in Morningstar is also relevant to the discordant messaging found in Superfun(d). For Superfun(d), Hiltner studied the designs of historical sideshow and circus posters and read about the over 1700 historical and current Superfund sites in the United States on the EPA website and in correlating newspaper and journal articles (and kept a bibliography of this research). She chose the oddest and most terrible to feature in this piece. Superfun(d)’s sideshow posters were created in cut and printed paper before being sent off to be printed on cloth. This process was new to the artist, but she learned and employed it to be able to feature the informative text clearly. The panels were then machine and hand quilted and embroidered. The red and white tent was made from a found quilt, altered and repaired for the piece. The skeletons are characters often used in the artist’s work as guides, these were made from scrap linen and hand stitched. In Superfun(d), the dark audacity and extensiveness of corporate pollution is conveyed not as a polemic, but playfully in quilt form. About Maggy Rozycki Hiltner: Maggy Rozycki Hiltner is a full-time studio artist and living in Red Lodge, Montana. She has a BFA from Syracuse University and was a Studio Assistant at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. For over 30 years now, she has been collaging found embroidery and quilts with her hand-stitched imagery, giving these abandoned textiles new meaning and relevance. As a member of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates), she has served as a Regional Representative for Montana and Idaho and is currently their Regional Exhibitions Coordinator. Her work was featured at PGSMOA along with Ashley V. Blalock and Jennifer Reifsneider, in the 2021-22 exhibition Beyond Intention. She has been published and exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and was a 2015 recipient of the Montana Arts Council Artist’s Innovation Award. This exhibition is curated by Nicole Maria Evans, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. Exhibitions at the museum are supported in part by the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana's cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, Davidson Family Foundation, D.A. Davidson, Montana Credit Union, Hotel Arvon, First Interstate Bank, Gordon McConnell, Theodore Waddell & Lynn Campion, an anonymous donor, Kelly’s Signs & Design, and Fire Artisan Pizza.