CONTACT: PETER ALEXANDER
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0072; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: peter-alexander@uiowa.edu

Release: Sept. 29, 2000

Mel Andringa will perform 'Puzzle Pictures' at UI Museum of Art Oct. 13

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Actor/performance artist Mel Andringa will perform his "Puzzle Pictures" as part of the University of Iowa Museum of Arts’ series of Friday evening public events, at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13 in the museum. The performance will be free and open to the public.

Andringa is artistic director for Legion Arts, Inc., a nonprofit artists’ organization, andco-director of CSPS, a regional contemporary arts center in Cedar Rapids.

Andringa has long been fascinated with jigsaw puzzles and has used them in several of his performance pieces, including "The Sistine Floor," which was performed as part of the University Theatres mainstage season in 1987. One of his more recent works, "Puzzle Pictures," makes use of Andringa’s discovery that there is a limited number of templates for jigsaw puzzles, and that pieces can be interchanged among puzzles cut from the same template.

A graduate and former faculty member of the UI School of Art and Art History, Andringa joined with UI American Studies alumnus F. John Herbert in the early 1980s to found the performance art company the Drawing Legion. For 10 years Andringa and the Drawing Legion were based in Iowa City while touring broadly in the United States and Europe.

Under the auspices of Legion Arts, they continue to generate original, award-winning performances. Many of these, including "American Nervousness," "The Man Who Discovered Iowa" and "Jury Duty," are based on historical figures and reflect Midwestern themes.

In 1992, Legion Arts opened CSPS in a renovated, Czech social hall near downtown Cedar Rapids. Since then CSPS has become a regional venue for art, music, dance and theatre from across the United States and other countries.

M.C. Ginsberg Objects of Art, Inc. of Iowa City is the corporate sponsor for events at the UI Museum of Art during the 2000-2001 season, through the University of Iowa Foundation.

The UI Museum of Art, located on North Riverside Drive in Iowa City, is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays. Admission is free. Public metered parking is available in UI parking lots across from the museum on Riverside Drive and just north of the museum.

For information on the UI Museum of Art, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/uima on the World Wide Web. Information is available on other UI arts events at http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa. Information on Legion Arts/the Drawing Legion can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.legionarts.org.