April 23, 2010: Opening Reception, 6pm

May 7, 2010: First Friday Reception, 7-10pm

Rendering the NORTH by Thea Augustina Eck will debut at 1708 Gallery on Friday, April 23 and continue through Saturday, May 29. Join us for the opening reception on Friday, April 23 from 5:30-8 p.m. The reception will feature a talk by the artist at 6:30 p.m.

Rendering the North features photographs and sculpture by Thea Augustina Eck inspired by the concepts of exploration, myth and the unknown. This recent body of work reflects Eck’s own research into British explorations of the Arctic and Antarctic that took place from the 1800’s through the early 1900’s.

Eck describes the exhibition as overlapping two British stories “the first, a high Arctic tragedy of a famed expedition’s disappearance, and the second, a southern Antarctic tale about the balance of fate. This installation scours archived documentary, poetic inventions, and phantasms of personal imagination.”

Eck’s work walks the line between fact and fiction, documentary and fantasy. Using both her artistic imagination and historical knowledge, she presents the viewer with a narrative that features the phenomena found within solitude and the tragedy of history.

Thea Augustina Eck has shown both nationally and internationally including the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and the Arctic Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan and her BFA from Alfred University in New York. She currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. To learn more, visit Eck’s website: www.theaeck.com.

This exhibition is part of MINDS WIDE OPEN:Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts.