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detail from "Bittersweet Love's Cabinet of Curious Cure-alls" (2001)

About Boxed Assemblage

Commonly referred to as shadow boxes or dioramas, I prefer the term assemblage because it's a more accurate physical description and it refers to an art form rather than a folk form. Shadow boxes are generally a sentimental collection of objects cherished or thought interesting to the owner with usually no eye for composition or cultural significance of the items enclosed. Dioramas are, more technically speaking, a way of depicting a scene usually with miniature figures within a small enclosed scenery space. Many theater stage set designers will construct a dioramas as models for their set ideas. The term assemblage is not as specific as the aforementioned terms, yet it is more closely associated with describing a method of art making. And because my work is almost always constructed within the confines of a rectilinear space, or box, I refer to them as "boxed" assemblages.

viewing cabinet at ubu studio. Mr. Fly's Anxiety (2006) limited edition assemblage print. Entombment (2008) book assemblage piece with inner container.

These boxed assemblage artworks are available for sale exclusively through private sales. Collectors and art institutions interested in purchasing are encouraged to contact ubu studio.

Frank R. Turek's ubu studio

The place.

Ubu studio is the home of American box assemblage master Frank Turek. Located in downtown Portland, Maine’s historic Congress Building, ubu studio is the working studio for Turek’s latest assemblage creations. The studio also houses the back catalogue of Turek’s box assemblage artwork and visitors are welcome to come by and view the collection. The display case at ubu studio is chalk full of boxed assemblage pieces and has been compared to the 19th century wunderkammer within which there is almost too much wonder and mystery than one can grasp in a single visit.

The art.

Working with philosophical themes, poetic quandaries and playful associations Turek’s assemblage work stands apart from most contemporary art. Its quiet phantasmagoria is a throwback to early pre-modern styles (the late Romantic Symbolists, Pre-Raphaelite, et al.) and their emphasis on the poetic relation of images. The visual rendition of allegory, metaphor and other poetic modes is a central tenet with these shadow box pieces. This assemblage work is also contemporary in its use of post-modern strategies such as game theory and chance. Drawing from sources of artistic thinking in the writings of Tarkovsky, Gadamer, Mallarme, Benjamin and Jarry, Turek crafts visual art that is thought provoking in the truest sense of that phrase.

The artist.

Frank Turek is a native Mainer and his work reflects the regionalism of a New England upbringing. The quiet force of American Transcendentalism (as in Thoreau and Emerson) is a cornerstone in Turek’s ideas of the role of the artist in contemporary America. Turek combines the calm of the rural sage (the daring to be poetic in a world immersed in realism) with urban street smarts, and its push toward edgy avant-garde based ideas. It should also be pointed out that Turek is a member of the exclusive club of Maine artists who actually grew up in Maine.

detail from Beauty (2000) illuminated box assemblage.

Why ubu?

In November of 2004 as I was considering names for my soon to be art gallery/studio space, I sorted through at least a dozen candidates. I mulled over the implications and repercussions of each choice (much as I do when titling my art work.) I chose ubu for several reasons, not the least of which was the the overall spirit it conjured up in me.
Alfred Jarry's actual character of Ubu - stupid arrogance, wanton violence and puppet monster - is far from representative of my thoughts and art, but the learned humor that Jarry exercised in creating the character is closer to the mark. I feel closer to the idea of the character of ubu that I imagined Jarry must have felt, considering that he more or less made it emblematic of his play writing. A studied irreverence in combination with a humorous bent can lead beyond parody into a meta-parody as in most of Jarry's writings. Perhaps some hardliners would prefer that ubu represent the loud, obnoxious, bombastic rebellion toward the arts, and my work is too subtle and conservative for them to connect to the idea of ubu. If character need be a direct representation, then perhaps Jarry's Dr. Faustroll the pataphysician would be more appropriate. But my reaction to this kind of criticism is to find humor in their unconscious self-parody of demanding rules for how to rebel.
So it is the spirit of ubu that drives me, as a similar muse must have driven Jarry to write such work as Commentary and Instructions for the Practical Construction of the Time Machine.