Wood, metal and plastic dowels are the medium in a new exhibit at the The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery.
Gregg Silvis’ exhibition, “15,000 Dowels,” is featured throughout the month of May at the Mezzanine Gallery in Wilmington.
As a fabrication material, dowel pegs come without a distinct head and are used for holding together components of a structure.
Silvis explains his discovery of the possibilities the dowels present.
“I was doing a series of works and one of them was a scroll of a book. So I had to unscroll the book so I made a panel with all these dowels on it, and then I weaved the book through the dowels, and I had it up on my wall, and I was staring at it, looking at it, and I thought ‘You know, that’s pretty cool, I like that - I like the shadows, I like the way it looks.’”
Silvis became enamored of dowels, both wood and metal, and their constructive and aesthetic values. The pieces on display incorporate the dowels, either as a support mechanism or as the artistic element itself.
Silvis says this approach is spurring some new thinking about his artistic output.
“I think the next stage is I’m going to start working on some processes irrespective of any piece that I may be working on. In essence, a better way to think of it is so that I have more tools down the road, more options of creating things.”
Silvis found his path to art first as a librarian, and then a professional musician. He has been exhibiting his artwork since 2017. In 2019, he was selected as a Division of the Arts Emerging Fellow in Visual Arts.
Gregg Silvis’ exhibition, “15,000 Dowels,” is at the Mezzanine Gallery on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington through May 31st.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
