Two Art League instructors, Rosemary Luckett and Deanna Schwartzberg, have exhibits opening soon. And you’re invited! See below for details.
Rosemary Luckett: Earth House
March 30–May 1, 2016
Touchstone Gallery, 901 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC
In her 2016 solo exhibition, Earth House, Rosemary Luckett shifts her topical focus from human formed earth blankets to living organisms—beings who readied the world for humankind and who continue to support human lives now. To describe the nature portion of the human-biosphere story, she concentrates on mixed media collage, and a book of poems about these enigmatic images.
“I’ve become more appreciative of how complex biosystems are, and the delicate relationships between other life forms and us,” she states. “In this series of collage artworks I pay attention to divine articulations of the Natural World by meditating on living things, air, soil, and water.” While concentrating on a few of the myriad life forms that beckon to her, Luckett cuts, pastes, paints, and writes poetry. Some of her images are obvious masks, while others vary in composition. Mixed materials include recycled bubble wrap, cloth, and plastic netting along with papers and photographs.
Luckett is also inspired by Northwest Coast Indian transformation masks and Southwestern retablos. Some of her works are framed in wood shrines to emphasize their iconic nature. The framework around her thinking was built in part by writer Loren Eisely (The Immense Journey) as she pondered the impressive achievement and adaptive competence of living creatures who preceded humans, begetting more diverse and complex forms over 3.5 billion years on a fiercely wild and often inhospitable planet.
Earth House is Luckett’s sixth earth-themed solo exhibition at Touchstone Gallery. Her work commemorates Earth Day month, a time to meditate on our connection to our Earth home. TFAA Associate Artist, Luckett has soloed several times at Touchstone Gallery and other galleries in the region. She teaches collage at The Art League School in Alexandria and maintains a studio in the woods of northern Virginia.
Deanna Schwartzberg: Then and Now
March 30–April 29, 2016
Salon de las Artes, Embassy of Uruguay, 1913 I Street NW, Washington DC (Gallery hours Mon–Fri, 10:00 am–4:00 pm)
Over a long career, Deanna Schwartzberg has gained her reputation as an abstract artist and instructor in abstract painting. This survey of her work begins in the year 2000, when her art first begins to focus on the figure as it relates to the natural world. In the paintings and assemblages of Deanna Schwartzberg we enter a world of color and light that invites us to contemplate the shared presence of humanity and nature. In several series,each with different focus and meaning, a figure of near life-size proportions merges with elements of nature creating an energy that flows throughout.
Schwartzberg’s art has incrementally gone from total abstraction to creating a visual manifestation of her thoughts and ideas about the natural world. It is her roots in abstraction that allow her to uniquely express these ideas. In describing her process the artist says; “I work toward creating an ambiguity in the way I approach my subject matter, thereby allowing the visual experience to take precedence over the narrative. To do this, I often find the most compelling forms in places where they are not expected. I use color to bathe a figure in light, or lose it in its surroundings. Turning negative shapes into positives, I weave the color and allow forms to reveal themselves.”
Ms. Schwartzberg works in a series format allowing one painting to generate the next. To quote the artist, “I am often well into the series when I begin to discover what it is truly about. Generalities become specifics, and as I go deeper into the painting process I become more involved with the painting in a formal way as well as bringing my own thoughts and feelings to it.” This exhibition covers selected works from the artist’s series: WaterBorn, Figure as Metaphor, Memory of the Senses, Primal Connections and others.
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