Exhibiting Artists:
August 23 - September 29, 2018
Gallery Open: Thursday - Monday 1-5pm
Opening Reception: Friday, August 24th, 6 - 9:00pm
Artist Panel Discussion: Friday, September 14th, 6:30pm | Moderated by: Jackie Branson
Special Artist Discussion: Sunday, September 16th, 3:00pm featuring Jack Rosenberg
Jack Rosenberg I.D.Entity| East Gallery
Remembering Futures Past
Oil on Canvas | 113” x 89”| 2018 |
Identity. I used to know this stuff.
How did labels get important? Aren’t we all just humans? Do I have to identify with a group? How many groups? Do I need to defend my position? Do I have to be able to defend, or explain, how I think? Have I changed over time? Have you? Was it okay to just be human(s)? Should I judge you on whatever is convenient to judge people currently? What if a new norm arrives? Let’s discriminate based on how many freckles you have, or how many odd numbers you have in your street address? What if I do not reflect the times? Is my worth determined by how society sees or measures me? How do I know who I am? Do I allow you to decide for me? Do you allow others to tell you who you are? Should you? Should I? Oh I wonder. I wonder about all these things these days and I wonder about them when I paint a portrait. No wonder they don’t want to sit still. We’re all moving in time – constantly. Maybe that’s growth. For me it is. What do you think? |
#783
Stoneware Clay 5" x 3" |
My inspiration comes from my love of animals, nature and the pottery of primitive cultures with its relationship to the animal world and its simplicity of design. When I take a handful of clay and sculpt it I have no set plan on what I’m going to create; what emerges, emerges. This is what has kept me fascinated and intrigued for many years while working in the medium. People’s responses to my work have been what creature is this? My reply is whatever you see it to be. Working in stoneware I apply layers of oxides to the surface of my pieces to evoke a feeling of an archeological find.
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Personal Identities | West Gallery
Milk
Acrylic on Canvas 30" x 40" |
My work stems from the familiar, the intimate, and the remembered. I start with my own family photo albums. Working from these source images is a way of celebrating and understanding who I am and where I came from.
Textiles and materials are important to my work because they represent a way of documentation. In a typical home there are many elements that relate to cloth and material; curtains, bed sheets, wallpaper, and clothing. These materials can be stained, ripped, borrowed and sometimes worn. In all they become the backdrop to the lives lived and shared, recording a passage of time. I often incorporate fabric directly from my home in order to reference my past, and to reinterpret the scenes and narratives of my Polish-American family within a new context. My goal is to harmonize paintings and fabrics that float in and out of a specific setting and memory. |
Cenotaph
Wood and Bronze, 16” x 14” x 11” |
Through painting and sculpture, I investigate how young women navigate their ways in a world riddled with contradictory messages, rules, and expectations regarding female sexuality. My work addresses the effects such incongruities and pressures can have on body image and one’s sense of self, and the ways in which women adapt to and cope within their given circumstances. Subtleties in expression and body language can speak louder and more truthfully than words to the human experience, and so, with these pieces, I aim to capture the unique and complex relationships individuals have with their own bodies in an enduring and palpable way.
A parallel body of sculptural work, which merges the geometric with the sentient, studies man’s waning relationship with nature in present day, and the psychological unrest that can develop as a result of this distancing from the natural world. Through a transition of stark geometric forms to organic, figurative forms that express human discomfort, longing, and defeat, these works explore man’s cognitive struggle to exist within an strictly ordered, man-made world. |
Clear and Present Dangers
Oil on Panels 57" x 59" |
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a garbage man when I grew up, because garbage men were strong, drove a big truck, and did something that was useful. It was a respectable occupation, something decent, clear and practical. And it seemed very manly. For a young boy, the idea that he would someday grow up to be manly was an important source of self-assurance.
Boyhood ideas of manhood are straightforward, but reductive—being a man is more complex than being strong, useful, and good—and they do not account for individual differences and alternative masculinities. Much of what boys learn about the codes of conduct for appropriate masculine behavior is rooted in fear and ignorance, and their role models are often less enlightened about these matters than they appear. For many boys, childhood and adolescence are consumed with the search for the perfect masculine performance—one that suits them but also projects an image to the rest of the world that they are authentic men. Ideologies set in childhood are enduring, and we carry vestiges of these expectations and fears throughout our lives. My work explores these lingering cultural constructs of masculinity and how they affect the way men act and relate to one another. The ways in which these constructs operate to both enhance and thwart bonds between men interest me. The male fear of homosexuality and femininity, the pressure to subscribe to ever-shifting socially imposed codes of masculine conduct, and the moral dilemma men face in trying to conform are underlying concepts that inform my work. The visual narratives I create employ humor and an implied sense of threat to emphasize the sometimes absurd preconceptions and behaviors that influence relationships between men. The figures in my compositions are drawn or painted from photo-based collages made by recombining parts from various images of men. These images come from the mass media and from my own photographs. The collage process references how boys form their concept of male roles—by piecing together the perceived characteristics of cultural icons and stereotypes with those of influential men in their lives. The awkwardness of the figures resulting from this method reflect both the struggle men face to integrate these disparate qualities and the difficulties they encounter in their efforts to live up to society’s ambiguous role expectations. |
Ave.U Playground
Acrylic on Paper 21" x 27" |
Ronald J. SloanI paint that which I have not visually seen before, but what I have felt, which is always changing.
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Ephphatha
Oil on Linen 34" x 36" |
My hope is that my paintings are the equivalent of a good deed.
Making art is, for me, a necessity. The hope is that the personal, in its authenticity, becomes accessible, informative, and comforting. To be a part of the dialog of art is an invitation, a responsibility, a tradition, and a challenge to go further. Artists I admire, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin, painted all genres: their work is a complete view of the world, both a vast and an intimate picture. I have worked with many wonderful teachers who have continued in the tradition of figuration as informed by Modern Art. As a humble recipient, a conduit, I am devoted to expressing what I have sensed, sought, been given, and found. I aspire toward a painting with a high and low comedy/tragedy, both abstract and representational: figurative, naturally living alongside reality, in a parallel existence, solid and palpable as a poem. The human figure is innately beautiful. Its intervals and rhythms sign the harmonics of nature, marvelous when engaged in a relational space and informed by light. In a particular context of a composition, a personal and iconic kind of weight arrives through a responsive, reflective, paratactic process. The Africans, Ancient Greeks, Massaccio, da Vinci, Taddeo, El Greco, Corot, Courbet, Hokusai, Picasso, Matisse, Beckmann, Bonnard, Balthus, engage and inspire me. My grandfathers and grandmothers, my parents, brothers and sisters, and teachers, ignite a love that these artists in history keep aflame. These artists and teachers are my friends. To my contemporaries and to my mentors from times ago, I thank you for our conversations of images over the years. Grier de Langely Torrence |
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