Opening Reception:
Thursday, September 12, 5-7 pm
Simmons University presents Confabulation, an exhibition of photographs, video, sculpture, paintings and prints by Edie Bresler, Jaclyn Kain, Colleen Kiely, B. Lynch, Helen Popinchalk and Guhapriya Ranganathan from September 5-October 3 at the Trustman Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 the Fenway in Boston. A reception from 5-7 p.m. will be held on Thursday, September 12. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.
The Department of Art and Music studio faculty practice a wide spectrum within the arts. Their work is individualistic and rigorous. As educators they are committed to enriching their students’ contextual and creative process. The exhibit is an extended visual conversation about art, why it matters and the methods a person can employ to problem solve. Additionally, the gallery will present a dvd of background material on the artists which will feature the pianist Gregory Slowik, a department member, on the sound track.
Edie Bresler creates digital photographs that engage with the lottery. Her tender portraits of people and places remind us that the lottery is the stuff of dreams, an economic engine for small-scale variety shops and has many societal ramifications. The intense color and visual variety of her backdrops torques up the emotional resonance.
Photographer Jaclyn Kain uses veiled, indistinct images in black and white. She constructs portraits of her mother and children using a multi-step process. They are texturally rich, both formally and conceptually. The transitions and transformations of her portraits mirror the changes within each generation.
Painter Colleen Kiely evokes poignancy and humor with her dog Beau as her muse. She explores the connections between humans and animals, reminding us of art historical odalisques while at the same time exuberantly pushing the materiality of paint. The layers of color, marks and washes create a tension of contrasts-mimicking the inherent meanings.
B. Lynch presents video and sculptural figurines reflecting the anxiety of our current culture. The Reds and Greys – small paper, paint and wire figurines seemingly occupy a space out-of-time, using outdated or re-configured non-digital technology. Are they fairy tale figures, or inhabitants of a future that has imploded and is operating from the dregs of an earlier time?
Printer Helen Popinchalk, layers and manipulates her images of trees, creating a dreamscape of memories and changes. She overlaps and uses scale shifts as well as intense colors to break down an ordered depiction of the natural world, dissolving it into the chaos of our internal representations.
Recursive movement overlaying a conceptual map of everyday activity drives Guhapriya Ranganathan’s newest work in mixed media. Her mark making transforms the memories of her daily walks. She engages with transcience and intersections, incorporating scientific theories of genomic structures-using these models to visually constuct her works.
This exhibit is an opportuntiy for the Simmons community and wider public to recognize the wide range of approaches these artists/educators employ. As colleagues, they confabulate constantly-in the sense of conversation as well as fabricating from the imagination-creating a cross-departmental dialog.
The Gallery continues its Lunchtime Lecture series with Full STEAM Ahead: A Conversation About Creativity featuring several of the artists on Wednesday, September 25, from 12:30-1:30. STEAM is a growing movement concerning Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics as fields that all engage, in their best practices, with creativity. Equipping people to grapple with solutions to problems that are new and unforseen is the best preparation for a future yet to be imagined.
Trustman Art Gallery hours are 10 AM – 4:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM on Wednesday and Thursday. The gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Kyle Mendelsohn at (617) 521-2268 or find us on Instagram.