For immediate release:
Tabla Rasa Gallery
224 48th
St.
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 833 9100
PIONEER
WOMEN
April 18
– May 30
Artists’
Reception: Saturday, April 18, 3 – 6 PM
Amherst, MA, 16 March, 2009--More than 20 women who have settled
upon the fertile ground of the Pioneer
Valley (Connecticut River Valley) have created new artworks that will premiere
in New York City
at Tabla Rasa Gallery from April 18 – May 30. Many of these female artists are
transplants from many parts the country, such as curator Brooklyn native Terry Rooney (whose mother was born on
the same street as the gallery), who will bring her Statue of Liberty series to
New York for
the first time.
Several of the Pioneer Valley artists have blazed new frontiers
with their artwork and studios. Rosalyn Driscoll explores the
tactile nature of sculpture and encourages viewers to touch her work. Liz
Chaflin, the founder of Zea Mays, created the only independently owned
non-toxic print studio in New England. Erika
Zekos presents a model of her “Shedding Light” public arts project honoring
farmers with a solar-powered tobacco barn, advancing “green energy.” Ruth
West forged new techniques combining computer art with encaustic in her
artwork. Deborah Kruger also uses
encaustic in an unusual way: she invented a process using wax with fabric.
Another fabric artist, Deidre Scherer creates moving images using fabric
and thread, to address the issues of aging and mortality. Rachel Folsom,
Elizabeth Pols and Terry Rooney push the edges of painting with their
painted sculptural constructions. Belinda Lyons-Zucker adds a
contemporary twist with her African wrap dolls creating an Obama supporter doll;
one of her creations has just been selected for the Smithsonian Museum.
This is the first time some of the
“Pioneer Women” are exhibiting in New
York City. Others, such as Karen Dolmanisth, who has exhibited at
Exit Art and Smack Mellon, have exhibited all over the world. Many of the
artists have been honored with museum exhibitions, including Oriole Farb Feshbach, whose work has
been featured at the Springfield Museum, MA, Fitchburg Museum and the New
Jersey Museum,
Trenton. Ruth West was the first computer artist
in residence at Giverny Monet’s garden in France. Deidre Scherer has a traveling museum
exhibition called “The Last Year” which recently toured museums in Florida and is presently at the Greenville Museum in North Carolina.
Curator Terry Rooney notes, “Helping
to bring to the Big Apple so many rurally-based yet worldy artists in such a
rich mix of media and sensibilities has been one of the most creatively
rewarding curating experiences of my career. While we are all used to looking to the
City for cues about the latest fashions and trends, we feel we have much to
bring to a cosmopolitan public as
well.”