This exhibit delves into the sensual realm of color and the power that color has to touch the soul and evoke emotional response. The curators have chosen thirty works from twenty-two artists who have used color as the primary thrust of their expression, and in which color is perhaps the most moving aspect of the viewing experience regardless of content, form, or imagery. The curators’ intention was to highlight the surprising, and often delightful, visceral impact that color against color can have upon the viewer.
Consider the controlled frenetic spinning blast of kaleidoscopic color in Marilyn Stevenson’s manipulated photograph, Fearful Symmetry, and Deborah Ugoretz’s Notan Blue, a lyrical ribbon of bright cobalt against a sharp orange red background; the two colors flicker and flare as they play off of each other, with the blue making a bold statement of strength and purpose. Vurtego Pogo by Jodi Csaszar Zielinski is anything but a typical painting of boys on a pogo stick. The colors are just slightly shrill and off-reality enough to make the brain work to adjust the color balance; but then the brain gives up and the viewer just goes with the pure joy of the unexpected color play.
This show is not just about bright and vibrant color, as is seen in two works by Andrea Geller, Solitary Man and The Journey. These are two moody, vaguely articulated landscapes with small gesture-rendered figures that seem to be enveloped in the light and storm-filled colors of the atmosphere that surround them. Krista Svalbonas also uses tints of color in her encaustic collage, Constant 3, which is a layered whisper of calm colors in a delicately balanced geometry, suggesting gentleness and integrity.
The art in this exhibit is very diverse, not only showing many genres of style, but also diverse usage of mediums in both traditional and non-traditional applications. Judith Shneyer’s two watercolors from the Fire Garden Series are anything but traditional; from her bold brush strokes of watercolor on synthetic yupo paper, this work is fresh and innovative and environmentally conscious.
The wire bowl sculpture by Madeline Giotta at first glance appears to be made of colored paper clips; but upon further inspection, one can see that each piece of wire has been hand-twisted and laboriously attached to perfection.
Whereas much of the photography in the exhibit consists of manipulated images, the work of Kristin Krongard is the opposite. Her two photographs of flowers are beautifully shot and meticulously printed portraits of flowers that are so real that they appear out-of-this-world.
The artists featured in this exhibit are: Sarah Canfield, Pamela Deitrich, Andrea Geller, Madeline Giotta, Joan Goldsmith, Alyce Gottesman, Donna Grande, Betty Guernsey, Catherine Kinkade, Kristin Krongard, Amy Martin, Clarence Mather, Arthur Paxton, Christine Parker, Ellen Reinkraut, Judith Shneyer, Marilyn Stevenson, Krista Svalbonas, Lynne Toye , Deborah Ugoretz, and Jodi Csaszar Zielinski.