The body is primal. Since the beginning of time, its form evokes Ideals of beauty, fertility, and creation. Identity and well-being are linked to body condition. Disease, genetic control, mishap, atrocities and age all impact the body. Even natural processes, such as pregnancy, can prove temporarily strange with both positive and negative outcomes. People’s energy and self-image evolve around approaches to body health and fitness. Social acceptance and isolation can be direct reflections of body condition. The body is the ultimate canvas.
Jim Bloom’s works scream with the emotional pain caused when failing a perfectionist vision. He captures the drama behind everyday episodes, including addictions to overeating, drugs and nicotine or the need to dye one’s hair. Candyce Brokaw’s focus for this show challenges a medical world advocating breast implants, with its conflicting desires and solutions. Rondi Casey’s marionette sculptures deal with the impacts of racial color, as well as self-inflicted “improvements.” Andrea Cote and Bastienne Schmidt express the surreal beauty, unease, and isolation that childbirth and rearing can cause, while Elizabeth Silver evokes the female power of creation. Tara Cioletti’s photographs capture the sculpted impacts of emotion on her body. Sofia Lee Moran’s photographs of drag queens are both poignant and beguiling. Christopher Schneberger’s photographs illustrate his biography of a young amputee levitating through an idealized Victorian childhood. Matt Sesow’s works focus on the emotional side of physical disability, originating with amputation. Lynn Schirmer’s drawings depict the process of disassociation, an adaptive response to extreme experiences. Alison Silva’s intricate, mythic images gather references from other cultures, including the practice of marking the body. Claire Watson’s mysterious small sculptures transform familiar objects while referencing a fight with cancer and the symbolic value of hair. Ronnie Wiener’s collage of magnifying lenses brings attention to the obsessive scrutiny inherent in the pursuit of perfection.
Jim Bloom’s works scream with the emotional pain caused when failing a perfectionist vision. He captures the drama behind everyday episodes, including addictions to overeating, drugs and nicotine or the need to dye one’s hair. Candyce Brokaw’s focus for this show challenges a medical world advocating breast implants, with its conflicting desires and solutions. Rondi Casey’s marionette sculptures deal with the impacts of racial color, as well as self-inflicted “improvements.” Andrea Cote and Bastienne Schmidt express the surreal beauty, unease, and isolation that childbirth and rearing can cause, while Elizabeth Silver evokes the female power of creation. Tara Cioletti’s photographs capture the sculpted impacts of emotion on her body. Sofia Lee Moran’s photographs of drag queens are both poignant and beguiling. Christopher Schneberger’s photographs illustrate his biography of a young amputee levitating through an idealized Victorian childhood. Matt Sesow’s works focus on the emotional side of physical disability, originating with amputation. Lynn Schirmer’s drawings depict the process of disassociation, an adaptive response to extreme experiences. Alison Silva’s intricate, mythic images gather references from other cultures, including the practice of marking the body. Claire Watson’s mysterious small sculptures transform familiar objects while referencing a fight with cancer and the symbolic value of hair. Ronnie Wiener’s collage of magnifying lenses brings attention to the obsessive scrutiny inherent in the pursuit of perfection.
