LISTSERV 16.5 - ARLIS-L Archives

FLUSHING, NY - From April 15 through July 15, 2004, the Queens College Art Center presents The Art Libraries Society of North America: Members’ Exhibition. The show presents the work of 23 artists who belong to the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), the professional organization of “architecture and art librarians, visual resources professionals, curators, educators, publishers, and others interested in visual arts information.”

Simor and curator Alexandra de Luise, are paintings in oil, acrylic, watercolor, and Chinese ink; drawings, prints, collages, and assemblages; glass and fiber sculpture; mixed media; artists’ books and bookworks; photographs; and textiles. The artists are Margaret Boylan, Yvette Cortes, Mary Jane Cuneo, Deirdre Donohue, Kay Downey, Sheila D. Fox, Tom Greives, Annette Haines, Elizabeth Hylen, B.J. Kish Irvine, Miguel Juarez, Joy Kestenbaum, Robert Lobe, Jae Jennifer Rossman, Janette Rozene, Marilyn Russell, Nina Stephenson, Carol S. Terry, Shannon Van Kirk, William Bond Walker, Tony White, Laurie Whitehill Chong, and Tammy Wofsey.

The range of these artists is only suggested in the exhibition, which can display only a few works by each. The watercolor/drawing by Shannon Van Kirk introduces this essentially urban artist from the West Coast and Midwest. Van Kirk considers herself most at home in areas with a rich mix of cultures and a huge store of racial memory—a good fit for New York. Laurie Whitehill Chong’s collages are inspired by the natural world—its textures, colors, and patterns— which she observes with passion and reverently recreates in watercolor, drawing, and sometimes other media and found materials.

Several other artists focus on nature as well. Kay Downey’s still lifes and local landscapes, drawn from life, are less concerned with accuracy in depicting the image than with endowing the image with movement. Annette Haines’s still lifes of natural forms communicate her spiritual dialogue with her subjects. Janette Rozene’s landscape paintings interpret nature— its light, form and atmosphere— with the goal of awakening emotion and inspiring the viewer. For William Walker, the painting is a window onto a part of the observed world as well as a window into the unknown; the representational and the abstract are both present in his work. Tom Greives’ luminous watercolors of the Southwest landscape draw focus and power from their organizing composition. The paintings, drawing, prints, and artist’s books by Jae Rossman are physical records of visual stimuli filtered through the artist’s all-embracing perception.

B.J. Kish Irvine’s ink and watercolor paintings are inspired by her long study of the tradition of Chinese art. Her work expresses the rhythm and elegance of calligraphic forms, the play of negative and positive spaces, and her joy of traditional Chinese brushwork, ink, and handmade paper. Nina Stephenson, another highly versatile artist, is a printmaker, photographer, collagist, and book and textile artist who has studied traditional textiles in Java, Indonesia. On view are a quilt wall hanging and an artist’s book, both inspired by and created for Stephenson’s adopted Chinese daughter. The painting by Marilyn Russell, a Minnesota Chippewa, is powerfully imprinted with the symbols and spiritual meanings of her Native American culture, and tells a story rich in feeling. Tammy Wofsey, a painter and printmaker, draws on her childhood memories. By integrating collages of newspaper stories with paint on canvas, she creates a new dynamic, prompting the viewer to rethink and question the “normal” news of the day.

Photography is strongly represented in this exhibition. Margaret Boylan’s compositions incorporate formal artistic elements, and are governed by an overriding sculptural sensibility. Strong, expressive compositions also characterize the photographic “portraits” of saints’ sculptures by Yvette Cortes. The quiet, mysterious space of an upper floor of Harvard’s Widener Library is endowed with personality in Mary Jane Cuneo’s images. Joy Kestenbaum’s dual interests in the history of architecture and photography intersect in her sensitive and surprising photographic interpretations of French architecture. In Weekend Warriors, Miguel Juarez delivers a casual, contemporary portrait of people at play. Robert Lobe’s carefully observed photographs taken in Western Queens and Lower Manhattan capture the unexpected beauty, mystery and meaning of our everyday surroundings. Like urban still lifes, his compositions are filled with the city’s rhythms, patterns, and colors, and the ever-changing imprint of the city’s people.

Carol Terry’s visceral response to the work of sculptor Richard Serra has produced haunting images of “slices” of the built environment, in which the abstracted shapes interact, with much to say to the viewer. The Group Portrait by Tony White—a double, hanging collage of random photo- fragments—belongs to the artist’s current photo-work Portrait as Intimate Object. Existing in the barely perceptible space between the ephemeral and the concrete, the collage examines the internal tension between destroying an image often fraught with nostalgic meaning and a desire to preserve the act of taking the picture.

The Cisalpino Prayer Rug by Deirdre Donahue—a 20-foot-long hanging of small cotton embroidery flags—is one of the book projects that Donahue has pursued since traveling extensively through the Alps in 2003. Sheila Fox exhibits a unique form of freestanding, textile-based sculpture that she developed and calls “solid plaiting.” She builds these sculptural objects from industrially manufactured webbings, tapes, and non-wovens of various fibers, plaiting the bands together. The resulting soft sculptures, while remaining pliable and elastic, stand freely without armatures, fusing the geometric and organic qualities. Beth Hylen—a glass artist immersed in the medium’s expressive possibilities as well as its history—is represented by her recently created glass jewelry. Using different techniques, primarily lampworking, and exploring line and gesture, she creates glass as wearable sculpture.

Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY) is dedicated to the idea that a first-rate education should be accessible to talented individuals of all backgrounds and financial means. Founded in 1937, the college offers an exceptional liberal arts curriculum (with over 100 undergraduate and graduate programs) that prepares students for a successful future in our global society. Located on a beautiful 77-acre campus in Flushing, Queens College enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and preprofessional programs. Its nearly 17,000 students come from more than 140 nations and speak 66 languages, creating an extraordinarily diverse and welcoming environment.