Suzi Evalenko "What Mattered Most: A Life in Art and Letters"
First Street Gallery
This event has ended.
First Street Gallery presents an exhibition of recent oil paintings and drawings by New York artist Suzi Evalenko.
If all art is intrinsically autobiographical, for Evalenko it is especially so. Time and again, the artist has gone back to her personal experiences and the indelible influences in her life, to create images that explore her subjects' interior lives as well as their physical selves. For the past six years, her work has focused on the intimate relationships that have shaped her subjects' view of themselves. The current body of work is the most personal to date. No individual has had a greater influence on the artist than her mother (who was also an artist) — a beautiful, intelligent, passionate woman who left an indelible impression on everyone who knew her. Coming on the Centenary Plus One of her mother's birth, this exhibition is dedicated to "Alla".
"What Mattered Most" to the artist's mother was her close-knit family and the loves who were the touchstones of her life – nearly all of whom remained dear family friends and devoted to her, wherever their separate paths took them. Evalenko knew them well (though in most cases, long after the fires had cooled).
The subtitle — "A Life in Art and Letters" — refers to Evalenko's discovery in 2001, at the time of her mother's death, of nearly 500 letters from those closest to her. Written by politically engaged, intellectually animated, literate people, the letters reveal the vulnerable side of the writers, their churning aspirations, and the private doubts they rarely showed in public. Collectively, they paint an intimate emotional portrait of a vital woman.
In brief excerpts accompanying their portraits in this exhibition, the writers speak of what mattered most to them — in voices tinged with sadness or joy, with humor and perception. The paintings seek to capture essential qualities of her subjects as Evalenko knew them — informed by their words on the yellowing pages.
[Image: Suzi Evalenko "Alla" (2009) charcoal on paper, 23.5 x 22 in.]
Media
Schedule
from February 02, 2010 to February 27, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-02-04 from 18:00 to 20:00