Janet Pedersen: Step By Step
On View in the Gallery: November 18 - January 3
Outdoor Opening Reception: Saturday, November 21, 3:00 - 6:00 (Rain Date: November 22)
Everyone will agree that the past year has been uncommonly difficult. For Janet Pedersen, fate added the complication of a fractured ankle. During that slow healing process a body of art work emerged, and Step by Step is the result.
Janet’s indomitable spirit is reflected in her choice of theme for these works: the joyful exploration of dance. Restricting her own body’s movements in the interest of recovery, she turned her attention to the human body’s potential for movement. “I’ve always been drawn to this subject in art, and am particularly interested in movement and gesture with regard to form.” Using isolated frames from you-tube dance videos for reference, she has constructed compositions by playing with angles, pattern, line and color. Through this process she creates a dynamic visual dialogue between dancing figures and gestural backgrounds. Her compositions are inspired by work with live models (via zoom), as well as dance videos of the Netherlands Dans Theater and Alvin Ailey Dance Company, and her influences range from Martha Graham to Matisse.
Step By Step is Pedersen’s second solo show at the gallery. Working through physical healing, lockdowns, and the politics of the day, she has used her remarkable eye and hand to respond with grace and beauty, and we are fortunate to be able enjoy this achievement.
A graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Pedersen currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Before turning to fine arts, she enjoyed a successful career as an illustrator of 17 children’s books including four that she authored. Clients included noted publishers Candlewick Press, Clarion, Random House and Penguin Books. Pedersen is an online instructor of figure drawing through the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and when she is not painting in the studio, now that her ankle is on the mend, she is on her bike with easel and paints in tow, on that never-ending pursuit to chase the light in her Brooklyn neighborhood.
Work in “Step By Step” can be viewed and purchased on ARTSY
Project Space: “Linked”
“Linked” is an apt title for this show, the work of four disparate artists working in very different mediums. In spite of their differences, the artists are connected by a quality of line and form that conveys a sense of piecing things together and re-ordering. Even more significantly, these artists share a strength of purpose. They each use the concept of “linkage” to respond to the world around them. Their collective response is nuanced and emotionally resonant, reflecting the ability to poetically embody contradictions.
Jo-Ann Acey speaks of the images in her new series: “They explore my fascination with color, line, and pattern found in the nature and architecture of cities.” Her use of movement and spontaneity reflect the constant change in the urban environment. Acey uses abstraction and imagination to inspire her process. One can view each work as a kind of “scape” - a useful term that describes Acey’s interaction with and response to land, sea, sky, and city.
Leigh Blanchard is exhibiting works from her 2017 series, And Now I See. Using an artificial intelligence system online that has uploaded thousands of images, she pushes the software's abilities in image-to-image translation. Blanchard purposely plays with the process to try and produce unexpected results that the software has trouble rendering. Blanchard describes her process well: "Playing with the flaws in technology is a source of inspiration for me and a way to further push the boundaries of photography.” The resulting work is mysterious and rich. The viewer feels experiences a soft, lush focus, full of references that are at once familiar yet foreign.
This body of ceramic work entitled Art Facts has the highly decorative, patterned surfaces that have become a hallmark of Robin Roi’s works on paper. Roi explains: “These sculpted quotidian objects, produced with great verisimilitude in clay and decorated with surface patterns, embody a contradictory tension. The originals are objects of material strength made of metal or stone and meant to hold, weigh down, bind or link together.” As Roi translates her signature style into clay, the narrative becomes one of fragility. Ceramics are easily cracked or broken and then they are no longer functional. However, the addition of the decorative surfaces tells the viewer another story. These objects are meant for a higher purpose, before our eyes they have become totems, imbued with power and strength of a high order.
In this new series, titled Burnt Offerings, Amy Weil uses a torch as a tool for drawing. “I burn the paper, creating circles and marks and then coat the burned paper in encaustic medium. Paper and wax represent skin and the act of burning the paper is a metaphor for human fragility and wounding.” There is a kind of obsession to the torching, and layering of wax that feels cathartic for the artist as well as the viewer. Weil also uses thread to stitch the papers together, she states,” It is an attempt to heal traumas that are happening in the world at large and on a personal level.” Weil’s work with wax gives the paper a translucent quality. This achieves the lovely effect of light passing through, an allusion to hope and healing.
Work in “That’s How the Light Gets In” can be viewed and purchased on ARTSY