Visual Art

Into the Night

former professor returns for joint show with son

Marni Kaldjian |

TO THE LETTER. “Into the Night: A 20-Year Retrospective” features the mixed-media art of Susan Sveda-Uncapher and the photography of her son, Alex Uncapher.
TO THE LETTER. “Into the Night: A 20-Year Retrospective” features the mixed-media art of Susan Sveda-Uncapher and the photography of her son, Alex Uncapher.

If you are looking for something to do in the potentially life-threateningly humid month of August, consider the Janet Carson Gallery outside of the State Theater. Not only is it air-conditioned, but will also be hosting the “Into the Night: A 20-Year Retrospective” exhibit. This exhibit will feature the mixed-media art of Susan Sveda-Uncapher and the photography of her son, Alex Uncapher, in celebration of 20 years of gallery exhibition.

Alex Uncapher is a photographer who works with human subjects and creates images that blur the dark line between reality and fantasy.

The artwork exhibited will represent the past 20 years of their work, from paintings to photographs to sculptural installations. It commemorates the 20th anniversary of her first public exhibit, called “Water Cadenza” which was displayed in a space that was called the New Project Room before the Janet Carson Gallery. That first exhibit, and the current one, is put on by the folks at the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, and spoken highly of by them. 

Sveda-Uncapher has a BFA in Illustration from UW-Eau Claire, an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Chicago, and has exhibited her art nationally, including a joint show with artists Kiki Smith and Mona Hatoum. Awards received include the Bush Artist Fellowship. In the past, she has worked as a professor at UWEC. Sveda-Uncapher is known for her conceptual sculptures which make use of such unconventional materials as cast sugar molds, pencils, antiques, cooking pans, and, pictured above, plastic letters of the alphabet. She is interested in the interplay between the physical and the conceptual.

Alex Uncapher, who grew up in Eau Claire, graduated from the Center for Digital Imaging Arts in Boston, and currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a photographer who works with human subjects, and creates images that blur the dark line between reality and fantasy.