Exhibition Title: "Gyöngy Laky: Sculpture From Organic Sources" Dates: Jan. 11 - Feb. 19 Where: Memorial Union Art Gallery Second floor, Memorial Union University of California, Davis Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Closed Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan 18, and Presidents Day, Feb. 15. Reception: 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20 Artist's talk: Noon Wednesday, Feb. 3 Artist: Gyöngy Laky Gyöngy Laky refers to her work as textile sculpture, which she hand-builds using recycled orchard and park prunings, often held together with objects recycled from industrial waste. Working with these prunings as textile elements, the UC Davis design professor produces wall-mounted and freestanding sculptures, as well as vessel and basket forms. Laky became fully aware of the capability and value of all resources and began to pay close attention to potential materials for use in her art, when she traveled to India through the UC Professional Studies Abroad Program after graduating from UC Berkeley in 1971 with her bachelor's and master's degrees. While in India, Laky developed an interest in what she refers to as "the basic forms of human ingenuity." The ability to respond to resources presented by nature and the immediate environment, and to build simple, improvisational structures from substances available as raw material, is an inherent human attribute, Laky says. It is one that she has continued to strive for in her own work. This consideration for the use of resources has led Laky to reassess the role of artists in society. She sees her work as part of a more widespread fresh attitude toward nature and the environment in the visual arts. "Works reveal ecological conditions and question the character of human intervention. I think of my work as participating in these explorations into a new and resonant connection to the environment." Gyöngy Laky has been a faculty member at UC Davis since 1978. Laky heads the Master of Fine Arts program in textile arts and costume design in the environmental design department. This will be her first exhibition in the Memorial Union Art Gallery. The exhibition is free and open to the public and is wheelchair accessible.