“Real Concerns/Imaginary Perceptions” Exhibition

“Real Concerns/Imaginary Perceptions” Exhibition

Viridian Artists, Inc.

This event has ended.

Viridian Artists presents an exhibition of outstanding art by nine artists who are part of Viridian Artists’ Affiliate program. The “Real Concerns/Imaginary Perceptions in these artists’ creations are not immediately apparent, but each has a personal vision that that often supersedes their imagery and in these times of complex real events. Their meanings & motives reveal themselves and it is then that we understand move clearly their “Real Concerns/Imaginary Perceptions”.

Marie-Ange Hoda Ackad’s latest series reflects her abiding desire to use traditional techniques and mediums such as encaustic, raw pigments and metal leaf to create contemporary images which reflect very modern concerns. Her work focuses on the contradictions between what things appear to be and what they actually are, especially at this time of fake reality and alternative facts. Based in Montreal, Canada, Ackad is increasingly showing her works in the United States. Most recently, at the Alexandria Museum in Louisiana, at the American Swedish Institute and the Hopkins Center for the Arts in Minneapolis where she was awarded 4th place in the pastel category in the 23rd Arts in the Harmony International juried exhibit.

Deb Flagel’s “All That Is”, a mixed media assemblage, like much of her art, is about the accumulation of momentary glances. As she records the environmental landscape that surrounds us, her mind pieces together line, color and shape, constructing an emotional response. The artist says “signs and symbols become metaphorical. Emotion and experience become tightly stitched. Senses heighten. Clarity of intention unfolds. The energy of truth moves closer”. Originally conceived a decade ago, this work speaks clearly about the dangers lurking in our reality today.

When viewers look at the paintings of Charles Hildebrandt, they may see a landscape that they recognize somewhere in their own mind; perhaps a familiar place or an aspect of a past experience. For this artist, many childhood and adult memories are the roots of the conception of the images, with perhaps the wish of holding onto the past. In these paintings too, we are helped to realize that the places and individuals we cherish, undergo constant transformation as do we.

Barbara Hillerman sees reality through the lens of design and visual structure as much as through reality’s multitude of meanings. The elements of design play a dominant role in her images for her journey as an artist was initially begun via graphic design. The artist’s intent when she photographs is to ask the viewer to “read” her images from the visual clues she supplies, but then to come to their own conclusions.

Vernita N’Cognita has been working for decades with materials that are valueless trash, first junkmail and more recently, plastic packaging. An outstanding attention-getter is her “Endless Junkmail Scroll”,an ongoing work which is now over 400 feet long. The artist is constantly searching for new ways to present the work, offering it for just $10 a linear inch to be torn away from the whole & presented separately as a constant reminder that all that we discard is adding to the ongoing pollution of our environment. In the fall, she will be having a solo exhibit of the Scroll and related works at Farleigh Dickinson University and last February it filled 3 galleries at the Crary Gallery in Warren PA.

Matthias Merdan is a Swiss artist whose work is also embedded in the re-use and recycling of the discarded. He enjoys exploring materials, forms and concepts, always surprising viewers with works often potent with their messages.

Jenny Belin’s recent work is inspired by the studies of flowers, cats and dogs that she has drawn in her sketchbooks.

Carolina Poggi worked with Fátima Quaglia and Julio Bernal who graduated from the National Dance Academy of Uruguay, to create this photographic essay “The prison of freedom” at the Contemporary Art Museum which was formerly a female penitentiary. This environment was a key element of inspiration of the contrast generated between the artist’s freedom in a space which topically represents repression.

Poggi studied at the Cinema School of Uruguay specializing in still photography and has long been fascinated with photographing dancers in performance and in rehearsal. She is drawn to the concept of the photo-essay and has set up her own black and white lab working on several essays ranging from architecture to nature and especially, dancers. Her work has been displayed in Uruguay and abroad both in solo and group shows. In the past, she worked as a dance photographer shooting trainee dancers at the National School of Dance of Uruguay.

Kathleen Shanahan’s mixed media works owe much to print making studio practices and the processes of layering and sequentially developing unique effects. The artist creates her “pastiched” imagery through collage and the juxtaposition of diverse elements. Here, her piece, entitled “Real Concerns”, is embedded in fantasy that choreographs our imagination as she manipulates it.

Media

• Painting

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