Friday, February 24, 2006

Friday in the gallery

My friend Seema and I went to the International Juried Show at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (formerly known as the NJ Center for the Visual Arts, formerly formerly known as the Summit Arts Center, which was less of a mouthful than the more pretentious titles above). Interesting show, but not a thing I wanted to steal. Lots of photography and paintings, a print or two and a few offbeat pieces of art like a coat made out of latex foam and licorice, which hung on the wall. Both Seema and I were curious to see if there was any fiber (she weaves). Lo and behold, there was this piece by Deborah Kruger. She calls them textile paintings - this one is worked in fiber, encaustic, and oil stick. Check out her website. Cool stuff. Another piece, which I really liked and which I could not get a shot of, was a large work by Hollie Heller. I always think of her as a fiber artist, although this piece was paint, graphite on acetate. Hollie used to work on paper and fabric, cut them up, stitch them back together, and do wonderful and original things with them. The pix on her website don't do her work justice, IMHO. The third piece I liked was by Janet Shapero, who works in acrylic on screen. Oooh - I have a whole roll of fiberglass screen that I bought some time ago which is in the basement. Never thought about painting on it. I think her work is very nice. In fact, better than very nice. So tonight, in lieu of working, I kept Marty company and worked on the sweater I was supposed to give him for his birthday in Feb. '05. We rented "The Constant Gardner" -- that Ralph Fiennes is to die for - and the movie wasn't bad, either.

4 comments:

jenclair said...

Sounds like a great show. I really liked the pics and the links you posted - thank for sharing these. Such different styles and techniques, but such beautiful and arresting results!

Judy said...

Loved the pic, Rayna! Thanks for the links...more to dream about!
I also adore Ralph Fiennes...somehow we missed the Constant Gardener when it was out in the theaters. Will have to get it from NetFlix. I'll be binding my quilt when it returns home from the quilters, so will need some eye candy!

cfent said...

i haven.t checked the other links yet but i am wowed by shapero's paintings on screen~ adn yes i have a roll of it too...that might be someithign i have to try...
in between silk screening adn welding adn updating my website adn jsut generally making messes!!!

artmixter said...

That piece is stuning, real food for thought, thanks for sharing, Rayna. I'm working on textile paintings too, but not quite like this. I'll blog...eventually...about it.

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