From The Poetry of Form by Terry Rathje and Monica Correia

WIU Art Department Assistant Professor Terry Rathje and Monica Correia’s installation The Poetry of Form from the Michigan exhibition at the Krasl Art Center has been transported to Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids, IA.  Several other pieces have been added for the Iowa exhibition.

Monica Correia and Terry Rathje’s exhibition explores the kind of organic geometry that connects the strange idiosyncrasies of nature with the mathematical beauty of geometry.

Playing with the idea that the identity of many organic objects is dependent on scale, Monica and Terry’s computer-designed objects fall into three categories: small, medium and large. A particular form may be a vessel at one size, a sculpture at another, and a structure or architecture at another. Imagine a Frank Gehry building sitting on the top of a table or a nautilus shell the size of a stadium. Monica and Terry’s smaller vessels are created with a 3D printer; the intermediate pieces are furniture or sculptural objects, and the big pieces are structures that you can enter. At one point all of the pieces were computer files, and about half were built by hand (the other half were cut or built by CNC machines), using the digital models as the method for realizing and troubleshooting them.

Monica Correia was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has a degree in Architecture and Urban Design from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro School of Architecture, and an MFA in 3D Design from the University of Iowa. She has worked as a project manager for Flaksman, Pini & Vergara Architecture and Art, Ltd. in Rio de Janeiro, and is now head of the 3D Design area at the University of Iowa.

Terry Rathje was born in Eastern Iowa, has a degree in Art & Computer Graphics from Marycrest International University in Davenport, IA, and an MFA in 3D Design from the University of Iowa. He has been an artist, graphic designer, welder, and craftsman, and now teaches Graphic Design at Western Illinois University.

Ophidian--from the top--by Terry Rathje and Monica Correria

Ophidian by Terry Rathje and Monica Correria

Personal Portable Museum by Terry Rathje and Monica Correria