Curated by Sharon McConnell and Judi Strahota

Pixilated images made of hundreds of spools of thread or thousands of marker caps come into sharp focus in this artist's work.

Devorah Sperber’s constructed images based on historical paintings appear at first glance to be fantastic collections of mundane objects, spools of thread, chenille pipe cleaners, or thousands of marker caps neatly assembled on a grid, said Sharon McConnell, director of the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery. “On closer examination, with the aid of a crystal lens, the colorful pixilated abstractions shift into a perfectly focused image of the Mona Lisa by da Vinci, or Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Vermeer,” she explained.

McConnell notes that Sperber’s work bridges past and present and conflates high art with everyday mundane objects. The works selected for “BiFocal” ask the viewer to reconsider something we take for granted – the mechanism of sight and the interpretation of visual information, she said.

“BiFocal,” co-curated by McConnell and Judi Strahota, assistant professor of sculpture, will debut two new pieces from Sperber’s “eye-centered portrait” series.

Opening reception: Friday, September 8, 6-8 p.m.