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Email PageMetaphor: Investigating Identity Through Space
September 6, 2007- October 12, 2007
Reception: September 6, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Betsy Barnum, Melinda Buie, Paige Largay, Jiyoun Lee, Tiffany Matula
Art Gotham
547 W 27th StCurated by Nicole Berry
Art Gotham is pleased to present, Metaphor: Investigating Identity Through Space, a group show featuring emerging female artists working in a variety of media many of whom are exhibiting for the first time in New York. The works on display are alluring, not only for their visual qualities, but also in their ability to ask important probing questions. It is the goal of this exhibition to examine the varied techniques utilized by these artists in their individual investigations of a common quest for identity.
The artist Betsy Barnum constructs patterns and repetition of forms in layers of paint, ink and charcoal, attempting to mimic the hidden nature of human emotions. Engaging the viewer using an architectural approach to painting, Melinda Buie’s bold imagery reveals both a sense of strength and vulnerability in her work. Paige Largay abstracts familiar objects through photography exploring ideas of memory and longing, as well as demonstrating an appreciation of history that goes beyond the personal. Tiffany Matula addresses broader political and social issues through the juxtaposition of images of historical beauty and modern day tragedy in her sculptural collages. Stretching the anatomy of figures with charcoal and ink, Jiyoun Lee expresses her experience as an “alien” in a foreign land.
What does it mean to use metaphors to create a personalized space that is displayed publicly? Courageously, each artist explores the concept of identity in a unique manner, ranging from finding one’s purpose in life to a more intimate self-examination of one’s role within a smaller society such as a city, neighborhood or family. These diverse spaces the women represent in their works become a solace, a way to question and find their place and identity in the world.
We live in a time when art is flourishing; art as a commodity has never been hotter. In the current climate a great deal of work is created with a powerful few continuing to be arbiters of taste leading the masses. As a result, creativity in recent work is often lacking. As Kandinsky warned, during certain periods in art, “the question ‘what’ disappears from art; only the question ‘how’ remains;” this is the danger of a prolific period. The five artists in this exhibition have risen to the challenge of asking the all important question of “what” in their work -- enabling art to regain its soul -- and for that, they should be lauded.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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