First Rotation: Diana Baumbach and Jessica Kondrath

October 17 - November 20, 2019

Diana Baumbach, the Elizabeth M. Marion Visiting Artist and Scholar for the 2019- 2020 year, earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In addition to numerous juried and invitational group shows, she has had recent solo exhibitions at Box13, Jackson Center for the Arts and Washington State University. Baumbach has undertaken public art projects at the Hudson Museum, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, South Bend Museum of Art and the Albany County Public Library, among others. She received a Visual Art Fellowship Award from the Wyoming Arts Council in 2015 after receiving Honorable Mention three times prior to that. Baumbach is currently as Associate Professor and Foundations Coordinator at the University of Wyoming where she has lived for the past twelve years with her husband and sons.

First Rotation is a collaboration between two Chicago-area natives: Diana Baumbach, a visual artist based in Wyoming, and Jessica Kondrath, a choreographer and dancer based in Los Angeles. Both artists took inspiration from lunar cycles, gravitational pull and the weightlessness of space to create this new multi-media project. Kondrath choreographed movement, while Baumbach designed digital projections that were cast atop the dancers, as well as custom printed textiles that were integrated into their costumes. Following the performance, Baumbach created artwork in response to Kondrath's choreography.

Presented as an exhibition, First Rotation makes visible the creative dialogue that took place across the country between these two artists. Together they use the language of movement, adornment, light and image to explore the cyclical nature of life.