by Amy Alinkofsky
Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA) is happy to announce that it is re-opening its classrooms and gallery exhibition spaces. Visitors will need to schedule an appointment as there will be a limit on visitors in the space at all times in order to follow social distancing protocols. Visitors are also required to wear masks upon entering RoCA and while in the gallery.
This month, RoCA will present 3 exhibitions: Rockland resident Kris Campbell’s Look at Me, Leslie Fandrich’s The Feminine Perception: Beauty and Nonsense and Contemporary Rockland Artists: RoCA Faculty Exhibit. The Faculty Exhibit will be on view Sept 10 thru Sept 24, 2020. Look at Me and The Feminine Perception will be on view Sept 10 – Oct 4, 2020.
Woman with Peonies by Kris Campbell. Photography by George Potanovic Jr.
LOOK AT ME: Works by Kris Campbell is about seeing and being seen: This exhibit asks the viewer to go beyond judgement to become aware of what is seen and how something is seen while actively engaging in the experience of the outward—and inward—gaze.
Kris Campbell creates meaningful visual experiences that connect to the soul, time, space, and the human experience. Campbell takes a delicate, nominal craft, and, using yarn on screen assembles large works that take up space and demand to be seen. The consistent cross stitch throughout creates a smooth surface that highlights the color variation, evoking waves of light and molecular energy. In some places the screen is left bare, allowing for a space beyond the surface of the work to be seen in the way a soul searches beyond the surface.
In THE FEMININE PERCEPTION: Beauty and Nonsense, Leslie Fandrich tells stories of the feminine, using collage to draw connections to the boundaries of the female body and the ways in which women are viewed–or not viewed–in today’s society and media. Working with a wide range of printed media, including maps, vintage newspapers, fabric patterns, old book pages, music sheets, advertising ephemera, and images of women appropriated from fashion, her works appear both modern and timeless.
Fictional tropes taken from movies and books often serve as her titles. Through them she explores the ways in which our visual language has provided a disservice to more than half the human population. Her intent is to question and transform the way women are respected in our culture and reflected in our media. Questions she asks are: What do women need to do to hold power? How do powerful women make others feel? How does feminism intersect with racism, gender roles, and other forms of oppression? How do women increase their value in a society that frequently de-values them?
CONTEMPORARY ROCKLAND ARTISTS: RoCA Faculty Exhibit celebrates the present vision of the teaching artists at RoCA. The exceptional faculty actively creates, teaches, and exhibits throughout the U.S. and the Hudson Valley. Here are just a few of these accomplished teachers: Marlene Krumm-Sanders’ open ceramic sculpture forms are depictions of provocative architectural abstractions that play with tension between solid and negative spaces while simultaneously creating an illusion of defying gravity, and appearing to displace weight and push volume. Grids of lines wrap their way around the exterior of the object. The final sculptures are calm and content. Sanders studied at Parsons and at the American College in Paris, France. She exhibits extensively.
Artist: Jane Chang
Jane Chang’s Chinese brush paintings are based on one of the most renowned approaches to painting. It unifies what were considered the highest forms of creativity in China: painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Known as the “Three Perfections,” the painting style combines these disciplines to depict nature as a stylized extension of the emotional world of the artist. Chang studied master classes with Madame Aixinjueluo Hinyi, a descendant of the imperial Qing Dynasty, China.
Free to the general public, the gallery will be open by appointment only. To schedule a visit or for more information contact: Rockland Center for the Arts, 845-358-0877 or info@rocklandartcenter.org. Rockland Center for the Arts is located at 27 S Greenbush Rd., West Nyack, NY 10994. Gallery hours are: Mon.-Fri. 10-4; Sat. 1-4pm.
Rockland Center for the Arts is the oldest arts organization in Rockland County, presenting outstanding programming in the arts for over 70 years. RoCA is located at 27 South Greenbush Rd, West Nyack, NY 10994. For more information visit rocklandartcenter.org or call 845-358-0877.
