straight forward, image Driven
Exhibition Dates: october 5 – 30, 2021
Reception: Thursday, october 7, 5pm - 8pm
Beth Barry
Shira Toren
The Painting Center is pleased to present the exhibition Straight Forward, Image Driven, a Pratt Institute alumni exhibition curated by Izzy Nova.
This exhibition's first constant is that the exhibiting artists each attended the same art institution in, for the most part, unique decades. Then when they graduated, they continued to make imagery as resolute as their decision for life in fine arts. This intergenerational exhibition will assemble these femme alumni (1979-2016) and their installations to discuss ages and the topics, some social and political that these artists currently process through their artworks. The curation is by the gatherings of the youngest member and graduate to add to the dialogue. In this perspective, the exhibition represents 'straight forward, image driven' self and environmental explorations with sharp contrasts and narrative.
The first to graduate (1979), Beth Barry creates multilayered impressions called "Brainscapes", inspired from observation during her travels. By rejecting the horizon line, Barry focuses on the emotional experience of when land and light meet. The exhibiting work includes the installation Sea Wall, in which the horizon playfully surfs across 20 tri-colored 8x10in panels that extend into the peripheral.
Housekeeping and Alone by Shira Toren, a 1981 graduate, are from a series of works in which symbols of boats float in daunting voids, a response to migrational events. It is just one example of Toren's many series that depicts disparate levels of emotional security. The imagery rests on symbolism and voids that extend to a cut-off point before the linen's fringes. Select pieces from Toren's various series, including works during quarantine, are depictions surrounding the vast unknown and shelter.
Melody S. Boone (2009 graduate) uses her most recognizable ethnic features and formalist techniques to stimulate the subject of systematic issues on race within the white-gallery model. From Within, for example, is an ethereal, dreamlike abstraction of Boone's nose and lips, exemplifying the beauty of inclusiveness and depiction. Some of the works on exhibit are originals from Boone's master thesis exhibition. They are highlighted once again for their continued relevance.
A quote by Hannah Gadsby's Nanette inspires the works on display by Nancy Elsamanoudi, a 2013 graduate: "The history of Western Art is just the history of men painting women like they're flesh vases for their dick flowers." In Pink Flowers, gradations of pink and purple "dick flowers" wilt in vases as Elsamanoudi's visual response. The inherent humor is empowering, and the artwork’s inclusion in the exhibition is to honor that.
Susan Luss, another 2013 Pratt alumni, will exhibit her site-variable, colorful expression, created using an 11 x 11 ft canvas. It will drape and assume the gallery space with found objects planted without rehearsal during installation. Pink Moon will appear with other dyed artifacts and valued finds from Luss's life, staging inspired by the gallery's layout.
Collectively, this assembly of alumni artworks intends to serve as an abstract basis for the insight of emerging artists and viewers of all ages who visit the exhibition.
This exhibition would not have been possible without the generous support of the Caroline M. Lowndes Foundation.
