“Women Working in Clay” and “State of G/Race” by Sapphire and Crystals

State of G/Race Opening on November 9, 2012

20 Years Strong: Women Working in Clay | Sapphire and Crystals: State of G/Race | November 9 – December 23, 2012

In celebration of WMG’s 20th Anniversary, we are hosting two fabulous exhibitions: “State of G/Race” with work by Sapphire and Crystals, a collective of professional African American women artists in Chicago, and “20 Years Strong: Women Working in Clay” on display at the lower level of the Gallery.

“Women Working in Clay” Opening with Gail Holmberg, Linda Hillman and Joan Friedberger in front of Virginia Scotchie’s ceramic wall installation.

20 Years Strong: Women Working in Clay includes work by 21 clay artists from all over the U.S. The show demonstrates the varied and powerful contributions women ceramic artists make to the art world. Entries were curated by Linda Hillman, a ceramics artist who holds a B.A. in Art and Art History, a M.S. in Visual Communication from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a M.S. in Applied Linguistics from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In her curatorial statement, Linda Hillman writes: “My vision has been to showcase the conceptual strength, beauty, and skill women demonstrate in their ceramic work—the contemporary vessel, the quotidian pot, sculpture, and figuration. It is a big goal and women’s contributions to the art world are wider than this show can accommodate. However, ‘Women Working in Clay’ is a tribute to women who have forged a place for themselves and others in ceramics.

”Included are ceramic works by Mary Barringer, Meredith Brickell, Linda Christianson, Anne Currier, Andrea Gill, Silvie Granatelli, Jan McKeachie Johnston, Gail Kendall, Eva Kwong, Winnie Owens-Hart, Donna Polseno, Angelica Pozo, Liz Quackenbush, Annabeth Rosen, Virginia Scotchie, Ellen Shankin, Linda Sikora, Sandy Simon, Susanne Stephenson, Jerilyn Virden, and Paula Colton Winokur.

A State of G/Race is a group exhibition  featuring art by Sapphire and Crystals, a collective of professional African American women artists in Chicago who are celebrating their 25th Anniversary. It includes new art work addressing the theme, and a collaborative altar installation.

“State of G/Race” Opening
Joyce Owens (right) with Shyvette Williams

Conceived initially by Marva Pitchford Jolly and Felicia Grant Preston, the idea that women artists of African descent produce their own shows resulted in the collective’s first exhibition at the historic South Side Community Art Century (SSCAC) in 1987, with the second exhibition following at Nicole Gallery in Chicago’s River North in 1988. Throughout its 25 year history Sapphire and Crystals has held exhibitions at many galleries and art centers within the city and beyond. The individual personal work by each member addressing various themes such as race and gender, limited palettes, and honoring their pasts, exemplifies the diversity within the group. The signature self-portrait silent auction takes bids during the opening reception and presents affordable collecting opportunities for visitors on the first night only. The collaborative site-specific altar installation is an exhibit feature distinct to this collective.

Curator, Joyce Owens earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. A professor of painting and drawing at Chicago State University, she also curates for the two on-campus galleries. Owens has been sought out to jury fine art exhibitions and art fairs at the Museum of Science and Industry, The DuSable Museum, the Women’s Caucus for Art and The Wells Street Art Fair to name a few. Owens serves on the Advisory Committee for the Department of Cultural Affair’s Chicago Artists Month since 2002. She consults with the Chicago Artists Coalition, and is on the Advisory Board of Woman Made Gallery. Owens is an associate editor for The Journal of African American History.

Included are works in a variety of media by Rose Blouin, Makeba Kedem Dubose, Juarez Hawkins, Renee Williams Jefferson, Marva Pitchford Jolly, Joyce Owens, Felicia Grant Preston, Joanne Scott, Patricia Stewart, Dorian Sylvain, Shirley J. Sullivan, Pearlie Taylor, Arlene Turner-Crawford, Rhonda Wheatley, Shahar Caren Weaver, and Shyvette Williams.

Sapphire and Crystals will be hosting a special event on December 15th from 12 to 5 p.m. which includes a fine art sale and a film screening in honor and memory of Marva Jolly who recently passed away. Mudpeoples: A Portrait of Clay Artist Marva Jolly, by Shuli Eshel will be shown at 2:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

 

During the opening reception on November 9th I had the pleasure of viewing amazing art by so many talented individuals, individuals that you would be proud to know. These women show incredible diversity and integrity in their work. I can only hope to one day be as established and accomplished as they are.

“State of G/Race” Opening
with artwork by Patricia Stewart

-Lola Ogbara, Gallery Intern

Opening Night for “The Project”: A Fresh Perspective

Marjorie Koun’s Creation on Opening Night

On Friday September 9th Woman Made Gallery hosted the opening reception for The Project group exhibition, juried by Mary King.  Guests also celebrated solo shows All That Also Means to See by Maria Gaspar and War Stories by Mary King.

Despite the cool and rainy weather, more than 200 art enthusiasts arrived to view the work of the 20 exhibited artists.   The show demonstrated a variety of media that was interactive, interdisciplinary, solo and collaborative.

As a Women’s Studies major and a new gallery intern, I was particularly excited to experience and participate in the opening.  Prior to the event, I was able to witness the transformation of the gallery space as pieces were arranged and displayed to highlight their individual uniqueness and beauty.  Having never worked in an art gallery before, this was my first chance to experience art in a new and different way.  It was a special treat for me to witness the guests engage with the various forms of media and interact with the attending artists. Several pieces, including Marjorie Kouns’ performance, Body as Canvas, stopped guests in their tracks.  Using paint and glitter, Kouns transformed her subject’s body into a living canvas, simultaneously preserving the act on video.  Innerspace, by Indrani Ashe and Arum Prameshwari, is equally compelling.  The installation work employs dyed cotton and tulle as a metaphor for skin, achieving the expression of an imaginary space within the human body. Walking through the work, the lifelike colors and fabrics provide the viewer with an almost womb-like sense of comfort, as if standing inside a living, breathing body.

All That Also Means to See by Maria Gaspar

Solo exhibits by Maria Gaspar and Mary King are featured in the lower gallery.  WMG’s new multimedia exhibition space accommodates Gaspar’s installation, All That Also Means To See. The time-based work is comprised of an inflating structure which inhales and exhales every five minutes.  Gaspar also presents mixed media paintings inspired by landscapes and social spaces. These paintings feature ambiguous shapes, brown blobs, and other unnamed forms that seem to recall the blurred spaces of the imagination. 

Mary King’s solo show, War Stories, depicts emotional and personal perspectives of war.  The paintings are crafted from accounts of those directly affected by both World Wars, as well as the war in Iraq.  I had the opportunity to photograph the artist while she spoke to guests about her work.

Mary King (right) discusses her work

Because of my field of study, it was exciting to witness art’s ability to force the viewer towards a critical contemplation of the social and structural forces imposed by society. The work on display addresses and explores a myriad of issues;  the standards of beauty imposed on women, the changing landscapes threatening the safety of women, the exploitation of vulnerable groups in society, the consequences of existing gender relationships, human vices and insecurities, the establishment of individual identity, and the necessity of community spaces. Overall, the work feels like a celebration of the power, uniqueness and diversity of women.

–Jenifer Mooses, Gallery Intern

Opening Night for WMG’s Summer Exhibitions

Megan Diddle, Untitled

 On July 8th Woman Made Gallery celebrated the opening reception for its new group exhibitions “Underground”and “Seriously Funny”, and Gallery Coordinator Ruby Thorkelson’s solo show “Bodily Functions”. The opening reception was a full house of WMG supporters, artists, and new visitors. Ruby curated the “Underground” exhibition, which displays artworks in a range of media by twelve artists as well as a pop-up library of zines, comics, and self-published works. The “Underground” exhibition presented a visual and literary world of artists, many of whom are exploring subjects of gender identity. As a whole, the show highlights the malleability of sexuality and gender through a diverse range of artwork.

 

Pop-Up Library Opening Night

The pop-up library, created in collaboration with Chicago Underground Library, became a space for visitors to read and touch a variety of publications, as well as laugh, reflect, and share. On the opening night of the exhibition the library offered viewers time to explore zines and comics, some of which were created by artists whose work was also on the walls. Zines have a unique ability to instantly spark an intimate connection with their reader through the size, hand-produced quality, and personal artistic voice.

                         

The lower level of Woman Made Gallery contained the group show “Seriously Funny”, which was juried by Isabella Bannerman, long-time cartoonist and member of Six Chix blog (an online women’s cartooning collective). The humorous work inspired light hearted reactions from visitors, but also encouraged contemplation on the role of humor in art, the social history of women comedians, and the ever-changing social value of cartoons/print work.                                                         

Ruby Thorkelson's solo exhibition "Bodily Functions"

Sharing WMG’s lower level, Ruby Thorkelson’s solo exhibition “Bodily Functions” boasted a dynamic collection of mixed media three-dimensional work, two-dimensional drawings, and a mini-comic. Exploring the concept of input and output in relation to the human body, the solo exhibition evoked a visceral connection between viewer and artwork. Visitors were found bending and twisting around the three-dimensional works in an attempt to connect with every angle and crevice they contained.              

 

The opening night of Woman Made Gallery’s newest exhibitions was an energetic event full of laughter, conversation, discussion, and support. The layers of zines, comics, two-dimensional, and three dimensional work intermixed throughout Woman Made Gallery creates an exhibition that can be re-visited on multiple occasions. For those who missed the opening, the exhibition will be up until August 18th and information on WMG hours can be found on our website www.womanmade.org.

                                                                                                                                      

–Kate Pollasch, Gallery Intern

The Alchemy of Installation: an Intern’s Insights into the Arrangement of Abstractions

Abstractions - View from Front of Gallery

Before this week, my only experience behind the scenes of an art exhibition installation was as an assistant to students who were putting up their senior thesis shows at Interlochen Arts Academy, where I went to high school. It was fairly easy—all of the artists were students at the school, most of their artwork was created in the same building as the exhibition, and each artist determined where and how their work was presented. Here at Woman Made, the process is completely different; as an intern assisting with the installation of Abstractions and two accompanying solo shows by Sandra Perlow and Ruth Eckstein, I was lucky enough to be part of each step, from packing up the work in the previous show, to arranging and hanging the new pieces.

The museum and gallery mentality of “please don’t touch” is so ingrained in me that it was a little strange to adjust to the idea that not only was I allowed to touch this artwork, but I should, to take it off the walls and package it up, then take out all of the incoming work and get it ready to be installed. There’s a lot of care in all of that bubble wrapping, and with Krista Jiannacopoulos’s 48-canvas piece  from the previous 14^th International Open, it almost became ritualistic. You wrap and you fold and you tape and you wrap and you fold and you tape and you develop a rhythm. 

Abstractions - View from Middle of Gallery

I began the week learning how to take apart a wooden packing crate—fun with power tools!—and ended with reading all of the artists’ statements, making sure they were ready to be printed, and then cutting them to size and affixing them to the walls next to the correct piece. It was a fun guessing game to figure out which statement went with which piece without looking at the artist’s name. Sometimes it was very clear that they went together, and other times it brought a whole new understanding to the work.

Once all of the technical issues were taken care of: when the artwork from the last show was sent away, the walls spackled, sanded, and painted, the new pieces unpacked, and the forms and instructions filled out, scanned and filed away (all of the important work that’s invisible but totally necessary for keeping everything running smoothly) we were left with the bare walls, the analytical work of “laying out,” or arranging the artwork, and the physical work of hanging it. The raison d’être, but time-wise a very small part of what went into putting the exhibition together.

View of Sandra Perlow's Solo Show

While it took fewer hours to arrange and hang, the amount of problem-solving effort that went into it was quite remarkable. Even as an art history student, I know that when I walk into a space I don’t necessarily analyze how the art is arranged. If it looks good, I know it. Because the show is comprised of work that is very strong as well as fully or semi-abstract, it was a challenge to arrange the pieces in such a way as to all be in dialogue without letting anything be overshadowed.

Since we could not take into account representational content in the arrangement of the various pieces, and they all contain so many strong colors, lines and varying statements, we had to find a way to show off all of the wonderful paintings and sculptures without letting any of them overpower or clash with one another. There are so many things to consider: color, size, media, content, line, “loudness,” whether a piece is very serious or a little playful, or too distracting when hung next to one piece but really complimentary hung  across from another. To place certain pieces together would be too obvious, others were too bright to be next to each other, others too similar or different in terms of texture, and the list goes on. I am not sure if this ability to arrange work comes more from intuition or simpl practice, but it was fascinating to observe the attunement of the gallery staff to these details within the installation process.

Opening Reception for Abstractions

The way in which the show came together was almost like alchemy, and with everything in its final place it is obvious that the pieces are not only fantastic on their own, but also deepened by the stories of the other work in the show.

-Elise Nagy, Gallery Intern

Opening Night at WMG: An Intern’s Insights

Opening Reception for the 14th International Open group exhibition and solo show by Priti Gulati Cox

On March 4^th, Woman Made Gallery jump-started Women’s History Month with an opening reception for the “14^th International Open“, a group exhibition, and “Stree Jaati (A Community of Woman)”, a solo show by Priti Gulati Cox, first prize winner of last year’s 13^th International Open.

Despite the cold wind and the excess rain, close to 200 people—including both artists and art lovers—made it out to support the show. From Chicago neighborhoods to the suburbs and stretching across the States and beyond to Canada, visitors traveled to 685 North Milwaukee Avenue throughout Friday evening. All the way until the very end of the night, new faces poured through the door, and it was such a pleasure to see that every single piece of art was being appreciated as much as the next. Each artist seemed to have her own entourage of friends and family who I delightfully observed taking interest in many other pieces in addition to the work of the artist they came to celebrate. I met dedicated mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, cousins and friends, who came from all over to show their enthusiasm.

Being a newbie in Chicago, I hadn’t had much experience with art shows before moving here. Working as an intern at WMG I  experience first hand all that goes into the production of an art exhibition and its opening reception. It is incredibly exciting for me to see piece-by-piece and step-by-step how a show is put together. I have the privilege of watching it grow from being an important date on the calendar to the actual opening night.

Tatjana Jovancevic - "Proverbs 4:23"

There is nothing that moves me more than beautiful and interesting artwork, which is why the 14^th International Open show was such a joy for me. Each of the complex and engaging works got my full attention. The piece that I find most inspiring is Tatjana Jovancevic’s “Proverbs 4:23″.  Made of acrylic, wax and pencil on salvaged wood, it  shows that art does not have to take a traditional route of being made on paper or canvas. Beyond this, the image of the green heart resonates for me; my personal interpretation of the work is that my heart gets its color, life, and feeling from the sunlight of the people I surround myself with, and without them I wouldn’t feel like I was even alive. 

The experience also helped me see that as an artist, I can go to events such as these and use them as inspiration for my own art-making. I applaud every artist who made it into the 14^th International Open and thank Woman Made Gallery for supporting them and their artwork as well as myself. This was a truly pleasurable experience and I am glad I could make it.

-Amber Clark, Gallery Intern