Dittmar to Exhibit "Caged Dresses, Floating Kimono"

Otto’s “Caged Dresses, Floating Kimono” opens Oct. 1 and runs through Nov. 1 at the Dittmar Gallery, located on the first floor of Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive, on the University’s Evanston campus. Both the exhibition and an opening reception at the gallery from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, are free and open to the public.

In the “Caged Dresses” series, Otto has sewed together pieces of unwanted, cut-up paintings on discarded wire tomato cages she re-fashioned into dress forms. Otto describes the result as her “creative attempt to reform, recycle or redress woman’s inherent condition.”

Otto’s second series, “Kimono,” is comprised of reconstructed paintings, drawings and fabric scraps, all stitched together in a new relationship -- a kimono that floats with arms outstretched in Otto’s effort to “manifest spirit into body.”

Based in Chicago, Otto has exhibited worldwide for more than 30 years and has artwork in the Collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts Archive in Washington, D.C.

Former president of ARC Gallery & Educational Foundation, Otto teaches painting and drawing at Truman College and provides art therapy services focused on women and their creative processes. For more about the artist and her work, visit http://www.patottoart.com/.

For more on the exhibition, call the Dittmar at (847) 491-2348 or Norris University Center at (847) 491-2300, e-mail dittmargallery@northwestern.edu or visit the Dittmar Web site at www.norris.northwestern.edu/dittmar.php.

Nathalie Rayter, a senior in the School of Education and Social Policy, contributed to this story.

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