Northern Michigan University English professor and visual artist Russell Prather is showcasing his work in a solo installation-style exhibition titled “Layers and Light” at the Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA). As the recipient of NMU's 2020 Peter White Scholar Award, Prather received funding to create new works, participate in three solo and three group exhibitions—MMA included—and complete a two-month artist's residency.
Prather's pieces consist of multiple flat layers of opaque and translucent surfaces that create illusions of three-dimensional forms. Combined in many instances with light, his work “is intended to confound our habitual way of understanding what we see, and in that dilemma, opens ourselves to new ways of perceiving and understanding.”
A videotaped artist's talk and virtual walk-through of the exhibition, Russell Prather: Layers and Light, will premiere on the MMA YouTube channel at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22. The exhibition runs through Jan. 17.