Page Bond Gallery

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPHERES OF INFLUENCE: RECENT WORK BY MIRA HECHT, FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

In conjunction with Building Upon The Past, Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present Spheres of Influence, a selection of recent work by Mira Hecht.

Mira Hecht’s “Close to Home” series is another step in her exploration of the formal, emotional, and spiritual properties of the circle.  Her intuitive, mandala-like compositions, reminiscent of light refracted through water droplets, have gained much critical acclaim.  They are simultaneously dynamic and quiet, strengthened by tensions between surface and depth, and positive and negative space. “The circle is a vast and mysterious form filled with potential.  Inspired by my own contemplative practice and glimpses of perfection within the mind’s eye, each painting is meant to be a small gesture of exaltation, pointing to joy, connection and wholeness,” Hecht says.  Her canvases have a meditative quality that rewards extended viewing.

An opening reception for the artists will take place at the Page Bond Gallery on Friday, March 1, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.  The exhibition will remain on view through April 1, 2013.

The Page Bond Gallery, located at 1635 West Main Street, exhibits contemporary art in a wide variety of media and disciplines including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and ceramics.  The gallery acts as a venue for the work of emerging and established artists with local, national, and international reputations.

BUILDING UPON THE PAST:  A GROUP EXHIBITION OF 10 EMERGING WOMEN ARTISTS, FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013.
Curated by Amara Craighill and Sarah Irvin

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present Building Upon The Past:  a selection of new works by April Dauscha, Andrea Donnelly, Meredith Lachlin, Mary Ivy Martin, Ginger Metzger, Maria Stabio, Kaleena Stasiak, Sayaka Suzuki, Erin Lynn Welsh, and Augusta Wilson.

This group exhibition brings together 10 emerging women artists. Their works engage directly or indirectly with various roles, symbols, and activities that female artists of previous generations were compelled to challenge or usurp.  These include symbols of traditional feminine domesticity, motherhood, marriage, and the female body; the male gaze; and the reclaiming of conventionally feminine art forms such as quilting, embroidery, and needlework.

Chicago artist April Dauscha’s mixed-media practice examines fundamental questions about faith, devotion, femininity, and ritualistic decoration of the body.  Much of her work is inspired by the traditions of Catholicism and the need to reconcile the ancient traditions of many faiths with the changing cultural status of women.  As Dauscha notes, many rituals and beliefs associated with Catholicism—“marriage as sacrament, motherhood, the female body as sacred vessel, and veiling at mass”—were abandoned by women in the 20th century, along with the traditional gender roles that were upheld by the Catholic Church.  Dauscha’s video and installation work, which involves the objects and rituals of veiling and anointment, hints at the complex, though perhaps less strained and more accepting, relationship of recent generations of women to their faith.

Brooklyn artist Mary Ivy Martin uses photography, performance, and installation to explore the Nature-Culture dichotomy, often playfully alluding to the traditional association of women with nature and the exaggerated division between natural and human worlds.  For her Plant Bjorn series, she photographed several people going about their daily lives toting plants in baby carriers.  The work, which appears tongue-in-cheek, can also be interpreted as an exaggeration of the perceived closeness of women to nature, a reminder about the fragility of the natural world, or as a light-hearted embrace of the role of caretaker and parent.

The work of Canadian artist Kaleena Stasiak memorializes the traditional art forms of women in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  It challenges the historical bias, institutionalized by western art history, for fine art over craft.  Building upon the work of artists like Miriam Schapiro, also from Toronto, Stasiak calls attention to the power structure inherent in the marginalization of craft, and seeks to legitimize under-appreciated art practices like quilting, hand-stitching and sewing.  “By referencing quilt patterns, patchwork and the tropes of thread used in embroidery in my work I call into question the unfair distinctions between art and craft that . . . are artificially constructed by the art establishment,” says Stasiak.

Some of the questions the exhibition seeks to address are: How is this new generation of artists able to incorporate one or more of these traditionally feminine symbols or roles into their work rather than feel compelled to refuse them?  If these artists can be viewed collectively, what distinguishes their outlook from that of previous generations of women artists?  What gender-related challenges, if any, do they face in making their work and having it collected, displayed, and reviewed?  How do female artists of this generation fit into the multifaceted feminist movement?

An opening reception for the artists will take place at the Page Bond Gallery on Friday, March 1, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.  The exhibition will remain on view through April 1, 2013.

The Page Bond Gallery, located at 1635 West Main Street, exhibits contemporary art in a wide variety of media and disciplines including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and ceramics.  The gallery acts as a venue for the work of emerging and established artists with local, national, and international reputations.