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Transforming Community: Disability, Diversity and Access Ecology: The Difference Perception Makes The Light Within: The Difference Spirituality Makes The Difference Community Art Makes Four National Juried Exhibitions Presented by the Women’s Caucus for Art Jurors Petra Kuppers, Karen Gutfreund and Fay Grajower at Westbeth Center for the Art New York City
February 7— February 22, 2015 2
Copyright 2015 by the Women’s Caucus for Art. The book author and each artist here, retains sole copyright to their contributions to this book. Catalog designed by Karen Gutfreund, National Exhibition Director, WCA Cover Design by: Priscilla Otani
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ABOUT THE WOMEN’S CAUCUS FOR ART
The Women’s Caucus for Art was founded in 1972 in connection with the College Art Association (CAA). WCA is a national member organization unique in its multidisciplinary, multicultural membership of artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. WCA is committed to recognizing the contribution of women in the arts; providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development; expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women; supporting local, national and global art activism; and advocating for equity in the arts for all. As an NGO (non-governmental organization) of the United Nations, the Women’s Caucus for Art actively supports the UN Millennium Goals. WCA utilizes art as the universal language to engage artists, NGOS, and civil society on a broad range of issues such as gender equity and environmental sustainability. As a founding member of the Feminist Art Project, WCA is part of a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present. OUR MISSION: The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. We are committed to: recognizing the contributions of women in the arts providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women supporting local, national, and global art activism advocating for equity in the arts for all
For more information visit: www.nationalwca.org P. O. Box 1498, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013-1498 info@nationalwca.org, Tel: 212.634.0007 www.facebook.com/groups/107511953206/ twitter.com/#!/artWCA
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FROM THE EXHIBITION DIRECTOR This year WCA hosted four concurrent exhibitions held the Westbeth Center for the Arts from February 7 to February 22, 2015 in conjunction with the WCA Lifetime Achievement Awards, Gala, WCA National Conference and CAA conference. The national exhibition, Transforming Community: Disability, Diversity and Access, with Petra Kuppers as Juror, an exhibition project of the Women’s Caucus for Art, explores access and difference in its many forms. Disability challenges all facets of art and its accessibility: experiencing art, art education, interacting with art(ists), and art making. What are new ways of seeing, hearing, experiencing, and witnessing artwork? In the past, disability has functioned as a metaphor to signify tragedy, injury, oppression, and lack. Disabled people in representation held the space of the plucky survivor, the trickster figure, and the liminal shadow. In more recent decades, different perspectives with different cultural frameworks are emerging in the broader community. The prospectus asked: How do artists find space, time and audiences for expressing artful differences, whether these differences be physical, cognitive, emotional or sensory? How do forms of difference encourage new connections, new conceptions of what it means to be alive, to be in community, to be alone, to be part of the wider world? How do different experiences of the world reshape what art can mean? How do conceptions of race, gender, class, settler/native status, and sexuality become more powerfully expressed when combined with disability or vice versa? The ECO-art Caucus created an exhibition Ecology: The Difference Perception Makes and invited me to be the Juror. We asked for art that examines the concepts of wilderness and perception. WCA Eco-art Caucus explores “wilderness” as a state mind that defies location. This open state of mind, or “wonder” can be experienced in environments that inspire awe, foreboding or other qualities of “sublime” landscape. They can also unexpectedly arise in the midst of our everyday urban environments that are familiar and superficially unremarkable until explored with an observant eye. The JWAN chapter created an exhibition The Light Within: The Difference Spirituality Makes with Fay Grajower as the Juror. Artists were invited to explore disabilities from the Jewish perspective, using a quote from Torah (Leviticus 19:14) as inspiration. The questions asked in the prospectus were: How does the light of G-d within each of us shine through to reach out to those Jewish disabled members? How are Jews challenged - both the person with a disability as well as those who live with or care for a disabled person or encounter them? Do we put stumbling blocks in our own path or in the path of others regarding Jews with disabilities? How do we view the Jew who is disabled? How do we include or exclude Jewish disabled in our personal lives and in our Jewish community? How is the disabled Jew still invisible in the community? How does being Jewish influence the way we treat the disabled in our synagogues and the Jewish community at large? The Young Women’s Caucus (YoungWC) explored the impact young women have on socially engaged art and participation in developing, fostering and bringing awareness to communities through art practices with their exhibition The Difference Community Art Makes. In the exhibition for which I was the Juror and in the prospectus the YoungWC asked for a mix of mediums and documentation of community art practices that included, but was not limited to relational aesthetics, community arts, socially engaged art or dialogical art. With these four exciting exhibitions under the same roof, it is bound to please the viewer. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Westbeth Center for the Arts and to promote women artists through the WCA. Karen Gutfreund, National Exhibition Director
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FROM THE PRESIDENT Welcome to the Women’s Caucus for Art annual exhibition/s. For the first time ever the national and caucus exhibitions are under one roof at the Westbeth Gallery, contained in the historic Westbeth Artists’ Housing. Located in NYC’s West Village, Westbeth was conceived in the 1960’s as a partial solution to the acute need to provide housing and studios for artists and their families. In so doing it became one of the first examples of adaptive reuse of industrial buildings for artistic and residential use in the United States. Westbeth is an excellent example of ACCESS, this year’s WCA Conference theme. Access being defined as the right or opportunity to use or benefit from something/someone. This year Westbeth provides a venue that allows WCA conference attendees better access to see all of our national exhibitions in one place, preventing logistical problems during a program that offers so many art and learning options. This year all the exhibitions took their focus from ‘community’ investigating the diverse voices of women artists through lenses of Disability, Spirituality, Youth and the Ecological Concern. I invited Petra Kuppers, the 2015 President’s Awardee for Art and Activism, to provide the impetus for the theme based on her fluid and ever responsive openness, sensitivity and flexibility in her own creative practice and pedagogy. For this I thank Petra, whose work and influence is transformative and enlightening, making this exhibition one of the most ambitious to date. The Women’s Caucus for Art mission is to create community through art, education, and social activism. WCA strives to ensure the legacy of women in the arts, to promote women in the arts and to be an activist force that creates positive and long lasting change in our communities. This collection of exhibitions and encompassing catalogue are just one example of this mission in action. Each year the national exhibitions require a team of volunteers, without whom these opportunities would not be possible. I personally extend a huge thank you to all those involved in this exhibition for the energy and hours of hard work that they put into making it a success—Amanda Rogers, WCA 2nd VP and coordinator of this exhibition; Amy Bauer, Assistant Exhibition Chair; and Karen Gutfreund, National Exhibition Chair and Juror for her continued guidance in this and other massive WCA exhibition projects. Special thanks goes to our caucus chairs Rona Lesser, Jaimianne Amicucci, Danielle Eubank and MaryLinda Moss for connecting with their membership and streamlining the diverse interests and experiences of our artist community. Thank you to past national board member and longtime JWAN Exhibition Director Fay Grajower for acting as juror of the JWAN exhibition this year. Thank you to the Westbeth Artists Residents Council Members Geo Cominskie, Deb Travis, and Ken Golden for accepting our proposal and helping us pull this exhibition together; Westbeth is such a remarkable vehicle to promote, educate and exhibit work that transcends mere aesthetics. Finally, thank you to all of the artists that entered these shows, your contributions made this strong exhibition possible. You are invited and encouraged to join the Women’s Caucus for Art community and to come and experience the phenomenal work in this show and all future WCA exhibitions. Brenda Oelbaum, WCA President
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The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) is an international, collaborative initiative recognizing the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history and art practice, past and present. TFAP promotes diverse feminist art events, education, resources and publications through its website and online calendar, and facilitates networking and regional program development worldwide. The Feminist Art Project brings together artists, curators, scholars, authors, teachers and other art and museum professionals across cultural backgrounds, generations and widespread locations to refocus public attention on the significant achievements of women artists and the contemporary Feminist Art Movement. TFAP National Committee: Judith K. Brodsky, Judy Chicago, Kat Griefen, Leslie King-Hammond, Catherine Morris, Dena Muller, Ferris Olin, Arlene Raven (1944-2006), Maura Reilly, Susan Fisher Sterling, Anne Swartz TFAP Honorary Committee: Norma Broude, E. John Bullard, Connie Butler, Mary D. Garrard, Chrissie Iles, Arnold Lehman, Lucy R. Lippard, Margo Machida, Cindy Nemser, Linda Nochlin, Faith Ringgold, Lowery Stokes Sims, Gloria Steinem TFAP Founding Program Partners: A.I.R. Gallery, ArtTable, Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, College Art Association, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center, Brooklyn Museum, Institute for Women and Art - Rutgers University, Maryland Institute College of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Rutgers University Libraries, Through the Flower, Women’s Caucus for Art TFAP PROGAMS INCLUDE: TFAP On-line Calendar and Archives aims to effect permanent change by promoting and archiving exhibitions, performance, lectures, films, and other events and publications that recognize the work of women artists, feminist content in art, feminist art practice, the impact of feminism on the art world and feminist analysis in art and art history and other cultural arenas. Artists, scholars, groups and presenters may post their national and international exhibitions, publications and programs that serve this mission on the TFAP calendar. It is free of charge to post and search the calendar. TFAP preserves all calendar listings in the TFAP virtual archives and requests physical documentation from calendar participants to add to The Feminist Art Project Archives to be held in the Miriam Schapiro Archives at Rutgers University for future scholarship on feminist art and feminist art organizations. Feminist Art Resources in Education (FARE), an online resource portal providing unlimited free public access to educational materials that utilize feminist art, theory and history to empower students, youth and adults to think critically about the social issues that shape their lives. Visitors to FARE can access curricula and teachers’ guides from proven programs that can be downloaded and adapted for use in classrooms, after-school programs, community projects, home school projects and more. FARE links to websites and multi-media resources that complement the curricula available on FARE and can be used in creating distinctive hands-on class projects. FARE also connects to a comprehensive network of art programs on women and gender being implemented across the country, and provides reading resources on feminist art, current trends, significant accomplishments of women artists and topics of gender and art. 7
TFAP Regional Coordinators—TFAP supports regional networking and program development by linking from the website to over 40 national and international coordinators. Coordinators act as conduits for those needing general information or interested in being involved with a local TFAP group, and initiate programs in their areas. TFAP@CAA—TFAP presents a diverse set of panels, performances, gallery talks and tours that attract anyone interested in contemporary art and ideas. These events offered under the umbrella title of TFAP@CAA, coincide with the annual College Art Association conferences taking place in various U.S. cities. Through these programs, the general public, art community, and emerging art professionals gain access to cutting edge work and ideas of artists, curators, performers and scholars, up close and through a feminist lens and participate in ongoing forums for feminist issues and discussions of global art and art history. All events are free and open to the public. The Feminist Art Project is a program of the Institute for Women and Art (IWA), Rutgers University. The IWA is a unit of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and a center of the Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic & Public Partnerships in the Arts & Humanities.
For more information contact: The Feminist Art Project, Institute for Women & Art Rutgers University 191 College Ave, 2nd Floor, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 tfap@rci.rutgers.edu 848-932-3726 Visit feministartproject.rutgers.edu
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ABOUT THE JURORS
JUROR: Petra Kuppers Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist, a community performance artist, and a Professor at the University of Michigan. She also teaches on Goddard College’s Low Residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. She leads The Olimpias, a performance research collective (www.olimpias.org). Her most recent monograph Disability Culture and Community Performance: Find a Strange and Twisted Shape (Palgrave, 2011) explores The Olimpias’ arts-based research methods. She is the author of a new textbook, Studying Disability Arts and Culture: An Introduction (Palgrave, 2014).
JUROR: Karen Gutfreund Karen Gutfreund is a Curator/Exhibition Director and Arts Administrator. She has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco and the Pacific Art League, Palo Alto. She has been actively involved on the board of various arts organizations, is a consultant to a number of galleries and for private collections. Karen is the National Exhibitions Director and the Museum and Gallery Liaison for Women’s Caucus for Art, Member of ArtTable, the Northern California Representative for The Feminist Art Project, and Curator for UniteWomen.org. She is an art consultant – renting artwork to corporations and individuals. Lastly, Karen is also an exhibiting artist with a focus on “Art as Activism” to facilitate social change.
JUROR: Fay Grajower Fay Grajower studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, and holds an MA in Studio Art from New York University. Her works have been featured in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and Mexico, including Boston, Washington, DC, New York, Morelia, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Grajower also exhibited in Lugano, Switzerland, as well as Berlin, Bielefeld, Gera and Potsdam in Germany. She was an artist-in-residence in Florida, Israel and Germany, and has several commissioned pieces, including a painted sculpted glass installation at the Jewish Community Center of Wilmington, Delaware; a Holocaust Memorial Sculpture Installation at the B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton; and an installation for the International Women’s Research Center at Brandeis University.
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Transforming Community: Disability, Diversity and Access
National Women’s Caucus for Art 10
Transforming Community: Disability, Diversity and Access Juror’s Statement: Petra Kuppers
Disability challenges all facets of art and its accessibility: experiencing art, interacting with artists, and art making. What are new ways of seeing, hearing, being with, and witnessing artwork? How do artists find space, time, media, and audiences to express artful differences, whether these differences be physical, cognitive, emotional or sensory? In the past, disability has often functioned as a metaphor to signify tragedy, injury, oppression, and lack. In the submissions I had the honor to jury for this exhibit, new configurations of disability and art emerge. Disability surfaces as a site of complexity, as a time signature, as a way of knowing, as a way of being in the world, in community or alone, in pain and in pleasure. Chanika Svetvilas’s drawing as performance offers audiences a remediation, transposing the side effects of psychiatric medications into energetic marks on gallery walls. Laurie Edison’s photographs allow us historical views of disabled woman artists, creating new archives for ourselves. Riva Lehrer’s paintings draw visions of new mythologies, showing disabled women as expressive forces, collaborating with the portraitist to give shape and story to complex beauty. In keeping with disability culture’s investment in interdependence and connection, a range of works in the exhibit emerge from community practice, such as Chun-Shan Yi’s fabric work with Taiwanese women, or Ludmila Ketslakh’s photographs of Japanese elders. Some work derives from performance: Irene Loughlin’s eco-rituals or Lisa Steichmann’s photographic performance traces on human skin. Yet other work traces changes in time and embodiment, like Carolyn Applegate’s dyed stocking painting/sculpture, or Leigh Toldi’s miniature work. Salma Arastu offers us glimpses into spiritual dimensions and their lyricism, and Belina Chlouber works on the edges of American Sign Language and the graphic novel, letting us experience a mixture of visual expression and sound. In the dialogue emerging among the 26 artists represented in this show, this exhibit never allows disability to signify just one thing, just one story, just one dismissal or experience of discrimination. Instead, we can witness rich agency, the effects of internal and external pressures, and artful transformation.
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Carolyn Applegate Los Angeles, California www.capplegate.com
Where have all the flowers gone? Fabric, dyed stockings and polyfil, 24 x 36 x 8 inches, 2014 12
Salma Arastu Berkeley, California www.salmaarastu.com
Increase Me in Knowledge. Acrylic painting on canvas, 52 x 72 inches, 2013 13
Elizabeth Bowler San Francisco, California www.elizabethbowler.com
Dilaton. Oil on canvas, wood structure, tube light, 6 x 5 feet, 2014 14
A. Laura Brody Burbank, California www.dreamsbymachine.etsy.com
Le Flaneur (also known as the SteamWalker). Framed archival photograph, 11 x 17 inches, 2013 15
Linda Button Chevy Chase, Maryland www.bartleybutton.com
Sanguine. Oil on birch panel, 20 x 16 inches, 2013 16
Belinda Chlouber San Mateo, California www.belindachlouber.com
Remember Sweet Corn Stolen. Mixed Media on paper, 15 x 15 inches, 2014 17
Belinda Chlouber San Mateo, California www.belindachlouber.com
Faster than Time. Acrylic paint, pencil, charcoal and paper, 15 x 15 inches, 2014 18
Laurie Toby Edison San Francisco, California www.laurietobyedison.com
Sue H - Disability and Size Acceptance Activist. Archival photographic paper, 13 x 19 inches, 1994 19
Laurie Toby Edison San Francisco, California www.laurietobyedison.com
Kim Manri - Director Taihen, Japanese Disability Performance Troupe. Archival photographic paper, 13 x 19 inches, 2005 20
Stephanie Eley Decatur, Georgia www.stephanieeleyphotography.com
Darren Snulligan. Mixed Media and Inkjet Print, 11 x 14 x 5 inches, 2014 21
Christine Giancola Florissant, Missouri www.christinegiancolaphotography.com
All men are created equal. Digital Print, 16 x 20 inches, 2014 22
Susan Harmon Sterling, Kansas susyharm@hotmail.com
before her mind broke. Mixed, paper, 24 x 30 inches, 2013 23
Ludmila Ketslakh Ann Arbor, Michigan www.ludaketslakh.com
Daydream. Japan. Print, 20 x 16 inches, 2011 24
Stacy Koffman Watkinsville, Georgia stacy.koffman@ung.edu
Be Quiet. Mixed Media, 7 x 5 inches, 2014 25
Beth Lakamp Fenton, Missouri www.bettsvando.com
I am mostly alone now. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches, 2014 26
Riva Lehrer Chicago, Illinois www.rivalehrerart.com
Liz Carr. Acrylic on panel, 24 x 12 inches, 2011 27
Riva Lehrer Chicago, Illinois www.rivalehrerart.com
SUSPENSION: RR. Charcoal and mixed media on paper, 30 X 40 inches, 2014 28
Irene Loughlin Hamilton, Ontario www.ireneloughlin.com
cothromaiocht-balance/equilibrium - personal/physical. Photography, 29 1/8 x 39 7/8 inches, 2014 29
Sandra Mueller Malibu, California www.scwca.org/profile/sandra-mueller
Guardians II. Archival digital print, 12 x 15 inches, 2014 30
Priscilla Otani San Francisco, California www.mrpotani.com
Hello Darkness. Braille magazine, paint, 20.5 x 11 x 1 inches, 2014 31
Linda Pearlman Karlsberg Newton, Massachusetts www.lindapearlmankarlsberg.com
Constrained Bloom VIII. Oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches, 2012 32
Bronwyn Preece and Laurel Terlesky Lasqueti Island and Squamish, British Columbia, Canada www.bronwynpreece.com, www.laurelterlesky.ca Copper. A Collaborative Piece between: Bronwyn Preece (‘solo’ improvisational performer) and Laurel Terlesky (media projections). Copper explores the edges of the personal and universal, the liminality, ephemerality and materiality of ‘illness’ and ‘disability’ through wholly improvised performances, integrating hand-held projections (previously unseen by Preece). Each performance will contextually and creatively respond in the moment — simultaneously engaging with the audience in an unfurling visceral discovery Where do the boundaries of a [dis]abled ‘self’ lie? 2015 33
Sondra Schwetman Arcata, California www.sondra-schwetman.com
Red Line of Fate. Forton MG, hand-dyed textiles, steel, pigment, spool, variable dimensions, 2014 34
Bonnie J. Smith San Jose, California www.bonniejofiberarts.com
Swimming Upstream, sm. Textile, 24 x 18 inches, 2014 35
Carolyn Owen Sommer Springfield, Illinois www.carolynowensommerart.com
Cut Off At The Knees. Paper, paint, 11 x 9 inches, 2014 36
Lisa Steichmann Ann Arbor, Michigan llsteich@gmail.com
Untitled. Archival ink on photographic paper, 11 x 6 inches each, 2010 37
Lisa Steichmann Ann Arbor, Michigan llsteich@gmail.com
Neil. Archival ink on photographic paper, 11.7 x 11.7 inches, 2011 38
Chanika Svetvilas Livingston, New Jersey csvetvilas@gmail.com
Side Effects. Charcoal, audio (speakers), dimensions variable, site specific installation, 2014 39
Leigh Toldi San Mateo, California toldileigh.blogspot.com
Uplift #2. India ink on paper, 14 x 11 inches, 2014 40
Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi Chicago, Illinois www.cripcouture.org
Skinny. Human skin, silk organiza, sewing thread, embroidery thread and body cream, variable dimensions, 2014 41
Ecology: The Difference Perception Makes
WCA ECO Caucus 42
Ecology: The Difference Perception Makes WCA/ECO Caucus Juror’s Statement: Karen Gutfreund I was honored to be asked to jury the exhibition and of the many WCA exhibitions I’ve been involved with – I think the ECO Caucus has superior quality artists, albeit divergent works and styles. There were seventy artists that submitted 146 works and I had to narrow it to sixteen to be included in the gallery. With this prospectus for Ecology: The Difference Perception Makes, we asked for art that examines the concepts of wilderness and perception. WCA Eco-art Caucus explored “wilderness” as a state mind that defies location. This open state of mind, or “wonder” could be experienced in environments that inspire awe, foreboding or other qualities of “sublime” landscape. They can also unexpectedly arise in the midst of our everyday urban environments that are familiar and superficially unremarkable until explored with an observant eye. This was a particular difficult show to jury as there was such a high quality number of works with excellent statements and as juror I spent an extraordinary amount of time going over and over the work. Unfortunately there was only one gallery within the Westbeth allocated for the ECO caucus but we could have easily filled the entire space. There was much beautiful realism, art as activism, photography and statement art submitted, it was so difficult not to include many of the other works -- but in the end what spoke to me and stood out as most powerful as the best reflection of “The Difference Perception Makes” was an abstracted, microview of the environment reflected in the artists’ work. A theme that flowed through the works, and forgive the pun, is a sense of fluidity—the works have movement and a feeling of spontaneity and life that runs throughout with the work. This was shown particularly in the works by Danielle Eubank, Diane J Mayer, Meg Madison and Jeannine Cook—with a beautiful quality of light that sparkled. The macro views in their subject matter in the works by Sue Crosby Doyle, Ellen Alt and Lisa Marie Sipe garnered to the viewer a much larger world beyond—exciting and waiting to be explored. The intricate, fine detail, and layering of imagery creates a sense of mystery — this pulls the viewer through doorways into beautiful worlds in works by Mary Lou Dauray, Rachael Davis, Kate Higley, Wen Redmond, Ann Kim and Dory Ingram. The sculpture by Judith Hugentobler is whimsical yet has the power of chaotic nature. The sculpture by Liz Dodson and Jim Brenner is massive yet delicate as it spins over sand, reflecting on the continuity of environmental forces, nature in continual motion. Lastly, the video “Dissident Skies” by Nora Raggio is haunting and speaks from another dimension making one reflect on their place in the universe.
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Ellen Alt New York City, New York www.ellenalt.com
Icebergs: Moulin. Mixed media on panel, 18 x 24 inches, 2014 44
Jeannine Cook Townsend, Georgia www.jeanninecook.com
Mnarani Marshes. Goldpoint, silverpoint on prepared paper, 14 x 18 inches, 2014 45
Sue Crosby Doyle Denver, Colorado www.facebook.comArtistSue?fref=ts
Into The Woods. Mixed media, 8 x 4 feet, 2012 46
Mary Lou Dauray Sausalito, California www.maryloudauray.com
Coal Seam. Acrylic and pen on art board, 36 x 29 inches, 2014 47
Rachael Davis Fort Collins, Colorado www.rachaelynndavis.com
Turf. Acrylic wash, organic materials such as grass, dirt, sand, salt, graphite, conte crayon applied to paper, 49 x 50 inches, 2013 48
Liz Dodson and Jim Brenner Minneapolis, Minnesota www.lizdodson.com, www.jamesbrenner.com
Restoring Balance III. Steel, cast iron, wood, glass, sand, video, 90 x 72 x 72 inches, 2014 49
Danielle Eubank Tujunga, California www.danielleeubank.com
Beira. Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches, 2010 50
Kate Higley Wolfeboro, New Hampshire www.katehigleyart.com
Moving to Safety. Colored etching and aquatint monoprint on rag paper 1/1, 12 x 12 inches, 2014 51
Judith Hugentobler Staten Island, New York www.judyhugentobler.com
Bucolic Series 2. Cast stoneware, underglaze and glaze, 13 x 8 x 8 inches, 2014 52
Dory Ingram Saint Helena Island, South Carolina www.doryingram.com
Spartina Refugia II. Acid free tissue, polymer emulsion, ink, graphite, 36 x 20 inches, 2014 53
Ann Kim Dayton, Ohio www.annbkim.org
R.I.P. Concentrated watercolor, acrylic, and charcoal on dura-lar, 44 x 36 inches, 2013 54
Meg Madison Los Angeles, California www.megmadison.com
100-Foot Rope No. 2. Cyanotype, paper, sea water, sunlight, 19.5 x 84 inches, 2014 55
Diane J Mayer Denver, Colorado www.dianejmayer.com
River From Sky. Acrylic on board, 30 x 14 inches, 2014 56
Nora Raggio Los Altos, California supernora@gmail.com
Dissident Skies. HD video and stereo audio, 7 mins, 2014 57
Wen Redmond Strafford, New Hampshire www.wenredmond.com
Bringing the Outside In. Digital fiber collage, 27 x24 inches, 2014 58
Lisa Marie Sipe Phoenix, Arizona www.lisamariesipe.com
Segregation of Smoke. Encaustic and photography on panel, 12 x 12 x 6 inches, 2014 59
The Light Within: The Difference Spirituality Makes
WCA JWAN Caucus 60
The Light Within: The Difference Spirituality Makes Juror’s Statement: Fay Grajower
Beyond disabilities are words inspired by the visual, on seeing a T-shirt with these words. And so I have been thinking about that since spotting that shirt. People mostly have two eyes, ears, nose, mouth and voice. Only when something becomes wrong with one well working item do we realize the relevance of what was. We make an effort to function and compensate as best as possible in the new circumstances. Twenty first century transportation and construction factor disabilities regulation procedures. Stairs is often a glaring challenge. Several artists addressed stairs in their works in written statements or pictorially in their works. Several artists referenced stairs; a profound way to highlight disabilities. Jewish tradition is sensitive to people with challenges. Modern day synagogues must have ramps to the bima and space allocated in seating placement for regulated number of wheelchairs at aisles. This exhibit by Jewish women artists network demonstrates this sensitivity through the visual, spiritual and with thought. The importance to those with disabilities among us share similar desires and aspirations just as we no longer see color we are going beyond disabilities.
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Elinore Bucholtz New York, New York www.elinorebucholtz.com
View 2. Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12 inches, 2009 62
Jennifer Colby Aromas, California www.galeriatonantzin.com
The Wall. Print of collage on metal, 11 x 20 inches, 2014 63
Jennifer Colby Aromas, California www.galeriatonantzin.com
Another Wall. Print of collage on metal, 11 x 20 inches, 2014 64
Anne Kantor Kellett New York, New York www.kantorkellett.com
‘Gloibn’ (Believe). Sculpture - hydrocal, pewter patina, 20 x 10 x 14 inches, 2012 65
Linda Mendelson Southfield, Michigan lbmendelson@yahoo.com
Little Cohesions. Watercolor on paper, 16 x 14 inches, 2012 66
Mary Morgan Hurst, Texas www.maryemorgan.com
Piercing the Darkness. Acrylic on Canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2014 67
Mary Morgan Hurst, Texas www.maryemorgan.com
The Light Within. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, 2014 68
Flora Rosefsky Atlanta, Georgia www.FloraRosefsky.com
INVISIBLE no.1. Gessoed canvas, paper, photograph, photo negative cutouts, 12 x 10 inches, 2014 69
Mary Shisler Oakland, California www.marykshisler.com
Contemplate the Dark Before the Light. Print on aluminum, 18 x 12 x 1.5 inches, 2014 70
Mary Shisler Oakland, California www.marykshisler.com
The Many Doors. Print on aluminum, 18 x 12 x 1.5 inches, 2014 71
Reva Solomon Los Angeles, California www.CreativeRebelGal.blogspot.com
Welcome Steps Not.... Paper, magazine pages, paint, ink, colored pencil, glue, 8 x 42 inches, 2014 72
Deanna Taubman Pacifica, California www.deannataubman.com
My Mother’s Ring. Gouache, gold leaf, sumi ink, 9.5 x 7 inches, 2011 73
Deanna Taubman Pacifica, California www.deannataubman.com
Skipped Beat. Oil on canvas, 20.5 x 16.5 inches, 2012 74
Marian Yap Pacifica, California www.marianyap.com
Boundary. Pastel over monoprint on paper, 19 x 17 inches, 2009 75
The Difference Community Art Makes
WCA YW Caucus 76
The Difference Community Art Makes Juror’s Statement: Karen Gutfreund
I was honored to be asked to jury the exhibition for the Young Women’s Caucus exhibition “The Difference Community Art Makes”. I was disappointed that only seven artists submitted works for this very interesting prospectus and from those chose five works for the gallery at the Westbeth that fit the theme. With this prospectus for “The Difference Community Art Makes”, we asked for art that explores the impact young women have on socially engaged art and their participation in developing, fostering and bringing awareness to communities through their art practices with a mix of mediums and documentation of community art practices. We asked for art to include, but was not limited to relational aesthetics, community arts, socially engaged art or dialogical art. The work in this exhibition is very strong, focused on community building and conscious raising sensibilities and combining these elements created work that is intriguing and engaging. The works bring to light serious issues in a lighthearted but meaningful way. Jennifer Weigel, documenting a performative piece with herself as subject pushes the envelope as to what is considered “acceptable”. Dressing as a homeless person, holding a cardboard sign with the words “Please Have Empathy”, she questions how we interact with our communities and how these people help shape those communities. Aimee Santos has created a checkerboard to encourage people to disconnect from technology and connect with community though the game to be played in the gallery as a participatory piece. “The Rag Doll Project” by Joanna Fulginiti, Bonnie MacAllister and Rachel Udell is a strong and moving piece documenting human trafficking through rag dolls. It was shown at the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, CA in 2013 in an exhibition “Honoring Women’s Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together”. Jennifer Colby and Sue Ann Hillyer with “Art 4 Girls Sake “ worked with teen girls to empower them to voice their ideas and explore the power of the visual arts partnering with Girls from Girls Inc and Community Partnership for Youth in the Monterey Bay area. And lastly Linda Gleitz, from a series of work titled Social Structure, “Honoring Sandy Hook and Other Mass Shootings” gives a heart rendering reminder of what happens when community falls apart but also hopeful in that community comes together to heal after such a horrible tragedy as the shootings at Sandyhook.
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Joanna Fulginiti, Bonnie MacAllister and Rachel Udell Philadelphia, Pennsylvania joannfulginiti@aol.com, bonniemacallister.com, racheludell.com and theragdollproject.org
The Ragdoll Project. Mixed media, 5 x 6 feet, 2014 78
Jennifer Colby and Sue Ann Hillyer Aromas, California www.galeriatonantzin.com
Art 4 Girls Sake. Collage and poetry on cardboard, 5 feet by 1 ft each, 2012 79
Linda Gleitz Longmont, Colorado www.lindagleitzart.com
Honoring Sandy Hook and Other Mass Shootings. Ceramic, 18 x 12 inches, 2014 80
Aimee Santos Morgan Hill, California www.aimeesantos.com
Live, Laugh, Love. Wood, 36 x 36 inches, 2014 81
Jennifer Weigel Somerville, Massachusetts www.jenniferweigelart.com
Please Have Empathy. Digital print of i-Phone selfie, on cardboard w/hand written sharpie description, 12 x 9 inches, 2012 82
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