Woman Made Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Nature House with works by 32 artists and poetry by eight women.
With both poetry and art, the Nature House exhibition goes beyond the typical landscape show. Selected artists look at how humankind treats our planet “house”—specifically, the positive or negative interplay between people and the natural world.
Juror Rosemary Luckett selected works that show a wide range of thought and imagery and all hit the nail on the head by revealing subtly, or not so subtly, how each of us is complicit in detrimental changes to the environment. Mirka Hokkanen’s cow on a black field refers to feedlot pollution and wasted resources that are abetted by a national appetite for fast food burgers. Houses fill the entire space in Jessica Maloney’s “Impact” painting, and are echoed in Alis Olsen’s sculpture, “Development,” a tree stump topped with houses. Open and occupied spaces are connected by highways in Jen Curry’s “Untitled (Man v. Nature)” eight-part painting, in Fred Bower’s “7 Years: Tire America to CVS Pharmacy” photograph, and in Jacob Lunow’s “Bridge” photograph. Jennifer Weigel and Elizabeth Wyrsch connect the dots between changing trees into paper, a messy polluting business, and our profligate use of paper products. Wielding a powerful brush Victoria Szilagyi captures the mechanical process of harnessing electricity from water in her “Force” painting (see inserted image.)
Contrary to the many works in this show representing contaminated landscapes, a few describe the carefully tended or gardened terrain that we think about so fondly, and which has been our legacy for so long. We get a glimpse of that in Henrietta DuBois’ collaged photograph, “Mesa Verde,” in Kathleen Kirk’s “Sweet Autumn Clematis” poem and in Maureen Flannery Tolman’s poem, “Regeneration.” In another vein, Christina Canzoneri contemplates the worth of a wee creature in her poem, “Snail in My Coffee.”
Each poem and each artwork is a gem to be enjoyed, contemplated, and then absorbed into our cells so we don’t forget the truthful and challenging ideas each artist puts before us. It takes real courage to make art about the discouraging state of our nature house today and even more fortitude to alter our lifestyles in ways that return to the earth at least some of what we have taken from it.
Participating artists include: Fred Bower, Christina Canzoneri, Bushra Chaudry, Jen Curry, Betsy Dollar, Henrietta DuBois, Laura C. Hewitt, Pamela Hobbs, Mirka Hokkanen, Christine Ilewski, Zev Jonas, Jessica Kay, Ray Klimek, Mary Longley, Jacob Lunow, Jessica Maloney, Michael McAvoy, Marianne McCarthy, Kendall Mingey, Catherine Cella Neapolitan, M. Francesca Notowidigdo, Mascha Oehlmann, Alis Olsen, Catherine Prose, Nancy Reid, Julia Samuels, Victoria Szilagyi, Heather Van Wolf, Karin Vance Chickadel, Jennifer Weigel, Katherine Wright, Elizabeth Wyrsch.
Participating poets are Christina Canzoneri, Sheila Donovan, Susanna Lange, Carey Colleen Lawton, Katherine M. Quimby, Rita Salluzzi, Kathleen Kirk, and Maureen Tolman Flannery.
