Ready For Take Off

Fine Art studio show 

at

Gallery r

100 College Avenue, Rochester, New York

The six women who participate in the new show at Gallery r are getting ready to take off.  They are about to enter a new chapter in their lives, and we think that R.I.T. has a positive effect on their individual skill levels and on their ability to connect with an audience.  The art scene is more open and willing to take a look, and each of these people have a story to tell with their installations.

Megan Mahaney is the first painter you see when you enter the gallery.  She has powerful paintings in a heightened palette and her figurative work will certainly capture the audience she is looking for.  For this viewer I had to think about the tradition of painting that Megan relates to - and that is an emotional attachment to drama like that of Carravagio, except all of Megan's paintings are centered on a woman's world.  Her paintings have a lustrous surface, but it is really the stories that go on in each work which will capture and hold your attention.  One woman's hair is on fire, while another one ( an Eve figure ) holds a shiny apple while giving birth through a C-Section to a trio of snakes.. Oh My!

Helen's interactive sculpture

Helen Danz has an interactive sculptural installation that allows one to play with the fluorescent forms that are magnetized and grip the large grey steel trapezoids like barnacles on a rock in the ocean.  On one wall there are three distinct stages of Helen's project to take chance sketches and graffiti and make them into something that has a strong sense of color and animation.  Helen is really into the engagement of her audience, and she is moving into a career in Art Therapy.

Paintings by Helen Danz

Shwanda Corbett has video, photos and installations which include three porcelain domes on a plinth on the floor.  The three domes receive a projection from above and the images are of a certain kind of clown.  At our faculty review, Shwanda talked about Charlie Chaplin, but in her work there is also a reference to minstrels and performers in blackface.  Shwanda is the star in all of the rolls she plays in the videos and in the large scale photo portraits where she can be seen in colorful "make-up.

Shwanda Corbett

Shwanda Corbett,

porcelain and projection

Shwanda uses the masking concept in her work, and the colors act like the paints that tribes use to distinguish themselves, and this also is like what one might see in rituals among native peoples of the South Pacific.

Diane Baron with Lauren Miyoko on the back wall to the right

Diane Baron has a variety of artwork on display, and all cross reference nature and the various stages of life and the passing of life, especially in her welded chain sculpture that rises like a snake charmer up and up into the room to end in a metal hook.  Diane also has an accordion book with twigs coming out on top and a wall work that includes decorative paper, found stones, and woodblocks attached to the wall.

Lauren is showing a hairy toy creature, while the drawings on the wall remind me of Edward Gorey. Lauren's artwork is illustrational, and I would love to see how she could build up a scene by using her techniques to build some further atmosphere for her work.

Maria Victoria Savka

Finally, there is a vital set of portraits from Ms. Savka who is also a gifted printmaker and she has something to say in a variety of media - all about the people in her life.  I get the feeling that she is energetic and always on the move and on the lookout for interesting personality and character. Her paintings have a bit of the French artist Redon in them.  This painting above is full of action and one can only speculate on what it all means...