Ceramics from Andrea Pawarski
at
The Yards
Women's Work is a group show at The Yards, which you can find on the northern edge of Rochester's Public Market. Open on Saturday from 10 - 2 pm, you go up two flights of stairs to the exhibition space and the little shop called Dichotomy. The Yards was established several years ago as a collaborative art space and it fills a gap by providing a venue for unusual installations and other media that might fall outside the realm of what a commercial gallery in Rochester could handle. This location, on the border of the Public Market, in theory could attract a lot of attention; it could become a scene. Artists who might not be able to find another way to show what they do could get a start here.
You can tell a lot about a person from their mode of expression, and the art on view in this exhibition can act as an opening chapter on the lives of artists that might be new to you. For this viewer, it was good to catch up with some of these women who have been students at R.I.T. - and see what they are doing now.
Always on the lookout for an artwork that will resonate, I enjoyed the ceramic wallwork ( above ) that looks like rolling waves in the winter, and it reminded me of another artist - Diane Burko who has made many paintings of waterways and glaciers. The artist in this case is Andrea Pawarski, and she is a young teacher and graduate of Syracuse University and her art is colorful, tactile, and almost baroque in the movement of her forms and details.
Jeanne Raffer Beck ( at right )
An attractive piece from this group show is from Jeanne Raffer Beck who I knew from her presence in the Hungerford Building where I maintain my studio. Her mixed media piece is called "Traces" and it shimmers like the iridescence of a hummingbird. Right next to her art is a smallish painting on wood by Judy Gohringer. She titles her work: "Primal", and it is almost like a primitive shield, carved and painted on old cedar shakes or shingles. I like the direct color and abstraction here, it reminds me of the Australian aboriginal art I reviewed at the Herbert Johnson Museum in Ithaca last year.
Judy Gohringer's "Primal"
Olivia Kim
"At Sunset", plaster and dyes
Olivia Kim is another artist I know from the Hungerford Building, and here she shows a figurative sculpture in rainbow colors that highlights motion. This artist has been working with dancers from the Garth Fagan Company in recent past and this work looks like part of that endeavor.
Marisa Nowodworski
"I'm Not Listening"
Acrylic and pen on canvas
Marisa Nowodworski has a painting that is a real statement ( or many statements ).
A portrait is surrounded by what could be lines of grafitti, but is more likely commentary that is heard and felt. A line of peaches on a shelf at the bottom serves to highlight the irony in the things that people say to one another, especially from parents and others who give caution to self-expression.
Amber Tracy
Amber Tracy is one of our recent grads from R.I.T. and her active little painting turns towards abstraction with a bit of energy and anxiety tied to it. Across the room, two tagged cows in a field are there to be observed and documented in this drypoint etching by Maria Savka.
Drypoint by Maria Savka
Finally, I wanted to mention delicate wrought works by Sarah Rose Lejeune called: "Tender".
These tiny sculptures appear like ancient artifacts or remnants of life from another century. They come in a little coffin and are displayed as if in a science museum. They are imagined skeletons of birds perhaps, or fossils of insects, and they are a peaceful way to engage with this show of art by women at work in a variety of media, thank You!
Sarah Rose Lejeune
with her work called: "Tender"
