McHenry County College adds to permanent art collection

An exhibit by artist Hope Wang at McHenry County College has ended, but three pieces of her work will remain at the Crystal Lake-based college.

McHenry County College bought three letterpress prints from the show, “The Vacant Plot of Sky,” which was on display from January through March. Wang also visited the college in February to talk about her work, process and perspective as a recent bachelor’s of fine arts graduate from the Art Institute of Chicago.

The purchased pieces are on display on the third floor of Building A, next to room A374.

The new prints feature selected poems from “Yellow Knees,” a poetry anthology that frames frustrated love and its collateral melancholy as an inheritance passed through various kinds of internal, familial, romantic and platonic relationships, according to a news release.

“Hope’s work fits into MCC’s overall collection by engaging with the wider McHenry County community and by promoting learning as continuous,” MCC’s art gallery curator, Trevor Power, said in a statement. “This is an important consideration to make when we determine artwork to purchase for the permanent collection. We want art that represents the full spectrum of life and community within McHenry County.”

Pieces bought by the college for the permanent art collection primarily include works from artists shown in the galleries, current MCC students, and faculty and alumni.

Wang’s three letterpress prints join the more than 280 prints currently in the collection, which includes work using a wide range of printmaking techniques, such as reliefs, intaglios, lithographs, serigraphs and collotypes, but until now, it had no letterpress prints, according to the release.

The college also recently bought and installed the first video piece in its permanent art collection, according to a news release.

The piece, “Mercury Black Magic,” 2021, by MCC photo instructor and Chicago-based photographer Justin Schmitz, is a little more than 13 minutes long and permanently located on the first floor of Building A, next to room A143.

“Mercury Black Magic” is a meditation on youth, grief and friendship through a young man describing the restoration of a 1980s muscle car, the loss of his father and a new romance with a young woman, according to the release.