Review | The Rib
Water is Everything at Drive-By Projects, November 18, 2017-January 16, 2018, Review by Mallory A. Ruymann for The Rib
Water is Everything
Drive-By Projects
November 18, 2017-January 16, 2018
Review by Mallory A. Ruymann for The Rib
Water is Everything unpacks the physical, historical, and socio-political shape of water with paintings by Judith Belzer and Cheryl Molnar, and works on paper by Joseph Smolinski and Shannon Rankin.
Molnar's contribution, Cliffside, depicts a house balancing on the edge of a cliff, a structure which Molnar delicately incised into the painting’s wood support. Though not explicitly rendered, erosion and other landscape elements (represented by dense clusters of painted paper) associated with our rapidly changing coastlines hint at the presence of water. Belzer’s small untitled oil-on-canvases (from the Half Empty Half Full series) portray the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams. The breakdown of the renewable water cycle means that these dams will soon become obsolete, though their physical forms will persist. Belzer paints the dams in an abstract style that de-emphasizes their present function in favor of their form, presaging their unproductive--but stylized--future role as monuments. The future also concerns Smolinski, whose phosphorescent-like Open Water drawings capture the uncertainty of what climate change may do to bodies of water. Rankin’s Earth Embroideries preserve satellite images of arctic landscapes in the medium of thread on paper, counteracting the ongoing transformation wrought on those landscapes by slowly melting glaciers. A cluster of branded water bottles stands on a plinth at the front window of the exhibition. Not credited to any particular artist, the cooperative sourcing of these vessels offers a potential salve to water’s precarious state. By working collectively around shared goals, we can perhaps determine the destiny of water.
- Mallory A. Ruymann
Exhibition | Water is Everything
Exhibition: Water is Everything at Drive-by Projects in Watertown, MA, November 18, 2017 - January 16, 2018
Water is Everything
Drive-by Projects
Watertown, MA
November 18, 2017 - January 16, 2018
Opening reception: Saturday, November 18, 3-5pm
Hours: Thursday 12 - 4 pm or by appointment 617.835.8255
Water is Everything, an exhibition of paintings by Judith Belzer and Cheryl Molnar, and works on paper by Joseph Smolinski and Shannon Rankin.
WATER IS EVERYTHING
DRIVE-BY PROJECTS
NOVEMBER 18, 2017 - JANUARY 16, 2018
JUDITH BELZER
CHERYL MOLNAR
SHANNON RANKIN
JOSEPH SMOLINSKI
BY MALLORY A. RUYMANN
REACTION > WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS
JANUARY 25, 2018
Water is Everything unpacks the physical, historical, and socio-political shape of water with paintings by Judith Belzer and Cheryl Molnar, and works on paper by Joseph Smolinski and Shannon Rankin.
Molnar's contribution, Cliffside, depicts a house balancing on the edge of a cliff, a structure which Molnar delicately incised into the painting’s wood support. Though not explicitly rendered, erosion and other landscape elements (represented by dense clusters of painted paper) associated with our rapidly changing coastlines hint at the presence of water. Belzer’s small untitled oil-on-canvases (from the Half Empty Half Full series) portray the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams. The breakdown of the renewable water cycle means that these dams will soon become obsolete, though their physical forms will persist. Belzer paints the dams in an abstract style that de-emphasizes their present function in favor of their form, presaging their unproductive--but stylized--future role as monuments. The future also concerns Smolinski, whose phosphorescent-like Open Water drawings capture the uncertainty of what climate change may do to bodies of water. Rankin’s Earth Embroideriespreserve satellite images of arctic landscapes in the medium of thread on paper, counteracting the ongoing transformation wrought on those landscapes by slowly melting glaciers.
A cluster of branded water bottles stands on a plinth at the front window of the exhibition. Not credited to any particular artist, the cooperative sourcing of these vessels offers a potential salve to water’s precarious state. By working collectively around shared goals, we can perhaps determine the destiny of water.
Drive-By Projects
Located at 81 Spring Street in Watertown, MA, Drive-By is a small, innovative space committed to exhibiting provocative work in its storefront windows and small gallery.
Founded by Beth Kantrowitz (Allston Skirt Gallery) and Kathleen O'Hara (OHT Gallery), Drive-By is open Thursdays 12-4 and by appointment, though you can always drive by our windows to view the current exhibition.
drive-byprojects.com
Mallory A. Ruymann is an educator, curator, and art historian based in Boston.
Background image:
Shannon Rankin, Earth Emroidery (Glacial Furrows), 2016, hand stitched thread on paper, 7 x 7"
Exhibition | Materiality
Exhibition: Materiality: The Matter of Matter at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, November 11, 2017 - February 11, 2018
Materiality: The Matter of Matter
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
November 11, 2017 - February 11, 2018
You begin with the possibilities of the material. –Robert Rauschenberg
The question of how and why an artist uses materials has long been a topic of consideration in art history. Today, many artists are looking to this question and seeking to find a balance between what they use to make work and the concepts behind them. Providing agency to the materials themselves, artists are looking at materials as a means of communication, whether they are expanding on traditional media and narratives or utilizing everyday objects to construct new forms. Exploring these concerns in their work, the artists included in the exhibition, all with ties to Maine, are also considering why they choose to work with certain matter in our current material culture and social climate, and the role that these materials play within it.