The UIS Visual Art Gallery's reception for the WORK/PLAY exhibition originally scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 17 has been rescheduled due to inclement weather. The reception will now be held on from 5:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24.

The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present “The Most Known Unknown,” an exhibition by WORK/PLAY, a St. Louis-based collaborative comprised of Danielle and Kevin McCoy. “The Most Known Unknown” will open on Thursday, Feb. 17, and will run through Thursday, March 10. An opening reception will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24.

In conjunction with this exhibit, the artists have recorded an ECCE Speaker Series lecture that will become available to the public through the ECCE Speaker Series video on demand site on Feb. 14 as well as the Visual Arts Gallery website.

“The Most Known Unknown” offers a body of allegorical and epistemic work to explore layered notions of erasure and redaction. History, as we know it, is an account of past events - but what happens when pertinent details are willfully omitted? WORK/PLAY questions how the past informs the present and how nuances of erasure shape the collective and historical consciousness. “The Most Known Unknown” presents an assemblage of art objects composed of research materials, documents and messaging in order to exhume buried information. 

WORK/PLAY is an interdisciplinary design/art studio started by Danielle and Kevin McCoy. Their practice spans across several disciplines such as design, printmaking, textile works and the book arts to explore issues of identity, racial inequality, erasure and redacted histories. WORK/PLAY has exhibited at institutions including The Luminary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Volkschochschule Stuttgart Photo Gallery, MCA Denver, O Cinema Wynwood and Wassaic Project. They have also collaborated with organizations including Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and Aperture Foundation.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is centrally located on the UIS campus in the Health and Science Building, room 201 (HSB 201). Gallery hours are 11. a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

For more information, visit the UIS Visual Arts Gallery website or contact the gallery at 217-206-6506 or alach3@uis.edu.