Jenny Morgan
Curated by Didi Menendez
Introduction
Lorena Kloosterboer
ARTISTS
Erin Anderson, Erica Elan Ciganek, Michelle Doll, Heidi Elbers, Shana Levenson, Sylvia Maier, Jenny Morgan, Sarah Muirhead, Omalix, Lee Price, Nadine Robbins, Victoria Selbach
for·ma·tion noun
- the action of forming or process of being formed. synonyms: emergence, coming into being, genesis, development, evolution, shaping, origination.
- a structure or arrangement of something.
Formation, in other words, strongly relates to the principles of conception, the creative process, the birth of—in this case— something quite sublime.
Formation is also a 2016 song by Beyoncé. She sings, I dream it, I work hard, I grind ‘til I own it… I imagine all the poets and artists participating in this exhibition and its accompanying PoetsArtists issue feel those words to be a truth, a powerful precept to live and work by.
In preparation of writing this introduction, time and again I gaze at the artwork with
my eager artist’s eye and recite the poetry aloud with my hungry reader’s voice, always in search for grace in form and in word, searching for a deeper truth that touches or shakes me. This body of work— presented as a collection of paintings and poems—seduces me with its beauty and substance. Allow it to stir you too.
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
Robert Frost (1874 –1963)
Poetry appeals to our senses through words and phrases which can be taken literally or figuratively by means of descriptive as well as allegorical language. Like any art form, subjectivity plays a large part in which poems touch and move us, their interpretation invariably linked to our own experiences, often sparked by a flash of recognition and understanding.
It’s not easy to define poetry, Bob Dylan once said, so who am I to attempt it? However, allow me the pleasure to illuminate this collection of poems and draw you in.
These poems are about regret, wistful recollections woven into elegies, mournful grievances about love dying and undying love. Gestures reminding us of youth and awkward growth and hurt and laughter.
These poems are conversations and explanations and recognitions, capturing personal histories in a snapshot of heightened awareness of those smallest of details and those awe-inspiring things so much larger than just our tiny selves.
These poems are about brutal thoughts and violence. About searching and finding the right words, beckoning, urging us to understand, to know, to please—I beg you—feel. They speak of accepting the paradox and tension of hopes and deceptions— those surprising yet somehow expected dishonesties and betrayals. About the beautiful bravery of rising above the mundane while immersing ourselves in the ordinary minutiae of daily life.
These poems are about rape and invasion and injustice and silent screams of frustration. About scars and trauma and disease—physical and emotional. About awakening to and recoiling at society’s rules of skin, dress, and acceptable behavior. About being shamed, rejected, ignored—fearing the dreaded invisibility that comes with longer life. Age, ugly and weak, beautiful and strong.
These poems are about the joy of feeling heartbroken and miserable and the guilty weight of feeling happy even when our world is crumbling. These poems are about life…
These poems—one by one—weave stories that unfold in the mind’s eye like theater plays. They should, by rights, be heard. I invite you to recite these poems to yourself. Let your voice caress a silent room and allow yourself to feel and see and understand.
The human figure is one of the most enduring themes in the visual arts. It draws our eyes, firing up our sensory cortex in an evolutionary response of reading facial expression and body language. When representational artwork retains strong reference to the real world its impact is at its highest.
Formal elements and aesthetic properties—such as color and values, line and form, shape and texture, scale and perspective— play an important role in these paintings. Besides establishing the illusion of dimensionality, there’s an emphasis on a narrative that attracts and retains the viewer beyond a first glance. There are no prescriptive formulas for what makes a figure painting successful— it is an elusive, intangible property that somehow the best artists know how to unite into a powerful expression that makes us stop and gaze. This collection of paintings offers exactly that.
Alas, today’s technological world of internet and social media relentlessly bombards us with an astonishing amount and variety of visuals, so the challenge of the figure painter to create an impactful and eye-catching image has increased on many levels—far beyond the extent that any pre-digital revolution artist ever faced.
The breathless pace of current technology normalizes our strongly reduced attention span, with dire consequences for contemporary realism—the non-instant artwork that takes time, skill, and effort.
Combining the results of a number of studies on how long viewers look at paintings I found that, on average, a viewer looks at a painting between two and 32 ½ seconds. According to the Louvre, visitors typically look at Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa an average of fifteen seconds. Wait… what?
The true lover of art looks at art for a sensory and emotional experience. The art expert focuses on the conceptual nature of an artwork as an expression of an idea. And the artist looks for all of the above as well as the technical facets of conception. We all seem to gravitate towards artwork that drives the entire psyche. Hopefully you find yourself among these three categories. Deserving more than a quick glance I want—no, urge—you to savor these wonderful paintings in a conscious and deliberate manner and really connect with them.
While not every artwork will attract us, those that do often generate sensations that we should honor and question, not only to enjoy that experience but also to know ourselves better. When art captivates us there’s an opportunity for awareness on both a tangible and metaphysical level. Besides, it can become much more than just a private personal encounter; we can share our reactions with others creating a social experience by initiating a connection through art.
The paintings participating in Formation are curated by Didi Menendez, publisher of PoetsArtists, and are shown in New York City at one of the world’s most prestigious art galleries championing contemporary realism.
Frank Bernarducci, Director and Partner at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery explains the premise of this exhibition, saying, “Formation is a group survey of young figurative painters. What do they have in common? They’re all women. There, I said it.”
With a glint in his eye he continues, “Formation will be part of our First Look program that showcases the work of compelling new artists whose work we believe warrants exposure. This will be the first time any of these painters have exhibited at our Gallery on 57th
Street and we are looking forward to hosting the exhibition.”
From inspiring portraits to passionate life studies, each of these artist offers their own distinctive style of capturing the human figure.
Each piece strikes me as a poetic narrative describing tangible and intangible aspects of life—some serious, introspective, or heartrending, others joyful, contemplative, or seductive. Generous are these artists who bravely expose their souls so that our eyes and minds may feast upon their toil. I invite you to spend some quality time with this superb anthology of poems and paintings.
Written by Lorena Kloosterboer © Antwerp, December 2016