The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to announce “Belly,” a solo exhibition by artist Rita Grendze. The exhibition opens March 2 and runs through April 9. A public reception will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on March 5 at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

“Belly” features an installation constructed from grocery bags collected during the pandemic, reassembled into oversized, sagging vessels that evoke empty stomachs and changing bodies. The work explores the tension between nourishment and scarcity and asks how hunger, whether physical, emotional or existential, settles into the body over time.

Grendze is a sculptor and installation artist whose work draws on gathered materials and the contextual meanings embedded in place. Raised between rural Rosenfeld, Manitoba, and suburban Lakewood, Ohio, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in fiber from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. As a Fulbright scholar, she spent a year in Latvia studying symbolism in folk costume—research that continues to inform her practice.

Grendze has taught at institutions including the Maryland Institute College of Art, Jersey City University and Waubonsee Community College. Since relocating to the Chicago area in 2001, she has contributed to community arts programs and arts organizations throughout the region. Her drawings, sculptures and large-scale installations have been exhibited widely, including at the Latvian National Library, and are held in both private and public collections such as the National Museum of Applied Arts in Riga and the Schingoethe Center at Aurora University. She lives and works in Geneva, Ill.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Located in the Health and Sciences Building (HSB 201) on the UIS campus, the gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For more information about this and future exhibitions, visit UIS Visual Arts Gallery website.