Chicago – Woman Made Gallery is proud to present “Seeing in a New Way,” a solo exhibition with sculptural works by Illinois artist Constance Demuth Berg. Assembling discarded parts of antique furniture, old tools, wooden molds, and other found objects, DeMuth Berg skillfully assembles her sculptures into harmonious organizations of forms, inviting the viewer to partner in the experience of seeing something familiar in a new way.
DeMuth Berg has received her education at various distinguished institutions, including the International Beaux Arts School in Provence, France, Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. She has taught at Northern University of Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and at Penn State University, Pennsylvania. DeMuth Berg is the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient at MacMurray College.
DeMuth Berg’s sculptures are in private and public collections, including at the Western Illinois University Library where viewers can see her memorial, Children of Shoa. The work expresses haunting memories of Prague and the Jewish ghettos especially Terezin, the site of the largest mass extermination of Czech citizens in World War II.
In her artist statement DeMuth Berg states, “As opposed to the ordinary, practical past use of the wood or metal, I see the forms in a new way. I take them as I find them, and am challenged and disciplined to work within the limitations of their design to assemble a sculpture in which each shape seems to belong to another by coming together into a final harmonious composition. I believe that it is necessary for both the artist and the viewer to become partners in the enriching experience of ‘seeing’ in a new way.”
