» MAY April 30 - May 31

Reception: Friday, May 2, 5:30-7:30

GALLERY I

Odile Dix

gone

Odile Dix: "gone"

 

In “gone” the work is arranged in groupings of objects, selected and positioned to comment on romance, power, and gender roles. Most of the groupings contain objects that are remnants of the past so they resonate with memories and questions about the passage of time.

As a collector I am very interested in the lifespan and the survival probabilities, of certain objects. I begin by searching and sorting particular objects from the landscape of ordinary life, separating them from the visual field of daily experience. I search for potent objects that project meaning

As I organize the objects in the studio both visual and emotional themes emerge. I imagine the narrative that the objects convey and combine the potent objects to reinforce the idea. I like thinking about the status and meaning of each object in the present. I ponder what that status and meaning might have been in its past.

Pictured above: "please, ring," mixed media, 5" x 5" x 3", 2007.

GALLERY II

Elizabeth Strasser

In Play

Elizabeth Strasser: "In Play"

“In Play” is a group of acrylic paintings on paper and pieces of ceramic stoneware that were created with playful immediacy. Colorful, bold brushstrokes express a whimsical iconography of forms in the paintings, echoed in the ceramic vessels.

In these acrylic paintings, I have used the watercolor technique of building forms with single layers of transparent paint. Each color seldom covers another, so I am always considering what is already there. The colored areas present a vocabulary of playful shapes interacting with bold brushstrokes. I painted with large brushes in bold color, enjoying the visceral interaction of form and color.

The ceramics have the same playful feeling as the paintings. I allowed the clay to lead me, using the natural responsiveness of the material to create areas of texture and shapes of clay. In some pieces I applied brushstrokes of colored clay in the same free language as the gestures in the paintings.

Pictured above: "Play On" (detail), acrylic on paper, 50" x 38", 2007;
"Cloud Jar," white stoneware, 12" x 12" x 11", 2008.