Opening Reception:
Thursday, October 15, 5-7 p.m.
Simmons University presents Line Acts, drawings by Stacey Cushner and Alexendra Rozenman, from October 5-November 5, 2015 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, October 15. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. The Gallery will be closed October 12.
Drawing is a way of thinking about, seeing, and recording an artist’s impressions. In Line Acts Stacey Cushner and Alexandra Rozenman demonstrate the wide latitude of the practice. Although each primarily uses line, the outlook of each artist is focused on in Cushner’s case on the observable world and in Rozenman’s on the interior psychological landscape.
In her Tree Series, Stacey Cushner is masterful at showing us the detail of nature. She adeptly describes each whorl and protuberance with her pencil. Spanish Pine ,2015, is an intricate observation of the bark and a partial view of branches sans needles. The tree suggests a whirling being with the curving branches implying circular movement radiating off of the trunk. Looking more closely we see the carefully placed marks conveying every tittle and jot of the crevassed bark. Cushner is fascinated by the sculptural qualities of branches and bark, but also the spectrum of life and decay.
In contrast, Alexandra Rozenman takes us to a topsy-turvy world, a place of shifting scale and “six impossible things before breakfast”1 as she explores her identity as a Russian émigré who came to this country as a teen. Her works have a fairytale quality to them. Stretch is a tour de force of subject and media working together. At the top of the image a sagging red hammock shape leads us into the work. Is it a red sky crying? Red droplets spread across the picture plane. Draped in an impossibly limber pose over the top rail-back of a chair, a being partly human and partly bird-like peers at us in a winsome upside down way. A red bowl is under the chair, echoing the red form at the top of the image. Each time we look, another possible explanation presents itself, but none can really be rooted in reality.
The Gallery continues its Lunchtime Lecture Series on Tuesday, October 20 from 12:30-1:30 with a presentation by Associate Professor of Art Colleen Kiely, who will discuss The Vision Thing: Seeing through Drawing, followed by questions and conversation.
[1] Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
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.