Ulrich gets fresh look to fill void left by Miro

Two new art pieces at Wichita State’s Ulrich Museum of Art require two ways of viewing them.

One large piece is an image of a print by WSU assistant professor Levente Sulyok, temporarily covering the façade while the Joan Miro mosaic is being refurbished. Teresa Veazey, interim Ulrich director, said it could be seen with the naked eye. Another piece is the waterproof display case to be mounted in the middle of the banner this week. People can see the case from two telescopes across the street to the south.

“We took down a piece of art, so it would be (appropriate) to put up a piece of art,” she said.

Sulyok titled the smaller piece “Small Pleasures.” More information is available at smallpleasures.org for anyone interested, including a description about the selection process and soon a link to submit an entry.

An entry cannot be larger than 12 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches for the 3-foot by 3-foot box. An entry can be short pieces of writing, photographs and other art forms by artists.

“It has to be [by] someone related to the arts,” Sulyok said.

He said the idea is for the work to be interactive.

Sulyok said a different juror selects a piece of art each month for the display case.

“In February, a juror is coming to look at selections for March,” he said.

An untitled work by James Ackerly Porter, the Ulrich preparatory, is the first artwork featured in Small Pleasures. The piece will be used toothbrushes in a recycled jar.

“The basic idea was to use my work as a backdrop,” Sulyok said of the large artwork. “The ideas is to create a community and public project,” he said about the small, ever-changing display case.

Each juror selects the next month’s juror, he said.

Veazey said the case will be changed until the mosaic restoration is finished and remounted, which is expected to be in fall of 2016.

“It’s being constantly refreshed,” she said. “They’ll always be something to see. I think it will be interesting.”

Sulyok said the telescopes will be left after Miro’s mosaic returns for a closer look at the thousands of tiny glass pieces.