The kickoff of the Public/Public collaboration with PATV, co-presenting the work of Travis Kraus!

Opening reception April 13, on view through the end of the month during PATV's open hours.

Travis is showing work created from recycled material during a 17 year period as a small business in downtown Iowa City called the futon shop, but that is just a small part of the story:

Travis writes: 
"Each tiny scrap of my futon-based work is attached to a person or memory or artifact from that place. I cannot separate the pieces from my connections to the amazing people that I was fortunate to call employees and friends. That is why this exhibition would be a retrospective of the nearly two decade futon shop era of my life.

August 30th, 1996 is the day that my boss Eric Shaw was shot by an Iowa City police officer. He owned the futon shop before me- I purchased it from his estate a few months after his death when I was just 21 years old. Eric was speaking on the phone in his own art studio when I cop assumed a light and an open door meant the place was being burglarized. The exhibition would not dwell on this dark piece of Iowa City’s history, but I also can’t overlook how much this date has shaped my life.

Eric himself also deserves to be recognized for his art and legacy of helping shape police reform. However, Eric is one piece of a long history that involves dozens of stories and amazing people. This exhibition is about the surrounding stories from that time period."